


The Not-So-Neutral Third Party

by gertiemcfuzz



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Couple's Therapy AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-31 09:33:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 46,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6465148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gertiemcfuzz/pseuds/gertiemcfuzz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Couple's Therapy AU: After the Siobhan debacle, Cat decides she and Kara need professional help getting their working relationship back on track.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Weeks 1-5

**Author's Note:**

> Holy Crap! This really got away from me so I'm splitting it into two parts. I hope you all enjoy, a huge thanks to everybody who encouraged this mess, a-e-radley whose post started it all, fictorium, supercatandfriends, and superqueer you guys rock! Also, I haven't edited this yet so there might be some mistakes yay!

“Stupid Jake!” Kara was pacing back and forth in her apartment. “Stupid Jake, who wants to be called Jake! Really Cat, you want us to work on our “professionalism”,” her voice deepened in mockery at the word, “with a therapist that insists on going by his first name?”

Lucy and Alex watched on in amusement, they’d only made it thirteen minutes into their girl’s night before Kara, who’d been brooding over her pizza, shot up out of her seat and started in on her rant.

The door to the apartment opened and two more members of what was quickly becoming Kara’s Pity Party entered.

“Consider the beer run successful!” Vasquez exclaimed. “Alex, I got your usual, but you have to try this new craft first. Lucy,” She caught the other woman’s attention and wiggled a bottle of top-shelf whiskey in her direction. “And then we have root _beer_ and ice cream for our friend with the unfair metabolism.”

Kara barely looked up, simply taking the offered bag, and muttering a thanks around her still running commentary about Stupid Jake.

“What’s up with Little Danvers?” Vasquez asked as she walked toward the kitchen, to set everything down.

“We hate Jake.” Alex replied, with a smirk.

“Ah.” Vasquez said in understanding, turning to stack the beer in Kara’s fridge.

“Should we be worried about that?” Lucy asked, pointing to the floor, where Kara had started to wear the varnish off the wood.

“Kara slow down.” Alex called to her before turning to Lucy, “Don’t worry, I refinish her floors at least once a year, and patch the drywall, rewire a few sockets; I actually learned to weld last year after she had a run-in with the copper pipes under her sink, I tried to convince her to just use her lasers but she was worried about the deposit.”

“Now that is a story I need to hear!” Lucy exclaimed, eyes lighting up.

“Excuse me,” the fourth member of their group piped up from where she’d been standing by the door, “I’m confused, just last week, I was told that Jake was a miracle worker. He cured polio with his smile. Now we hate him?”

“That was back when things were going Kara’s way. This week, Cat is winning.” Lucy explained.

“Stupid Jake.” Kara muttered again, heading toward the kitchen to search for the biggest mug she could find.

“I wasn’t aware that there was a competition.”

“Oh General,” Vasquez said, coming behind her from out of the kitchen and patting her shoulder reassuringly, “we have so much to teach you. Take a seat and allow us to recap.”

///

**Week One**

Kara walked into the unused office on the thirty-eighth floor, Cat had told her they’d be having a meeting with a private contractor this afternoon and to meet her in the office suite that had yet to be assigned to anyone.

She went about cleaning the space up a bit, the cleaning crew came through every night but it was obvious that it’s been empty for some time. She hoped she’d have enough time to get rid of some of the stuffiness before Cat and whoever they were meeting with arrived.

“You must be Kiera.” An unfamiliar voice said from the doorway, making Kara jump, she turned to regard the man curiously. He was a few years older than her, probably close in age to Alex and handsome in a way that screamed romantic-comedy, dark hair, bright blue-green eyes, just enough scruff on his face to be rugged but not unprofessional. He was dressed down a bit in dark jeans and a cowl-neck sweater, a messenger bag hanging close to his hip.

“Kara.” She corrected politely, extending her hand to shake.

He took it, looking at her bashfully, “I’m so sorry, I must have misheard Cat on the phone.”

“No,” Kara laughed a little, reaching to adjust her glasses, “you didn’t.”

“She calls you by the wrong name?” He asked curiously.

“She just has a thing with names.” Kara brushed it off, not wanting to make her boss look bad in front of a potential client.

“Hmm, we’ll have to address that.” He muttered to himself, reaching into his satchel to grab a small notepad and making a note.

“I’m sorry?” Kara inquired, tipping her head in confusion.

Before he had the chance to reply, Kara’s attention was pulled to the doorway once more as Cat strolled in.

“Oh good, Kiera, I see you’ve met Dr. Casey.” Her stride was determined, and it reminded Kara of when they faced Livewire. Most would be fooled into thinking she was relaxed but Kara could tell by the set of her shoulders that she was trying to hide the tension she was feeling, and it made her wonder what this Dr. Casey was here for.

“ _Kara_ and I were just saying hello, you couldn’t have had better timing.” He told her, and Kara had to bite her cheek to keep from smiling because he was charming in an effortless way, with his slightly crooked smile and just a hint of an east coast accent, and she could tell it was already annoying her boss. “And please, call me Jake,” he told them, though more to Kara than Cat, “we’ll be getting to know each other pretty well over the next twelve weeks, we should all be comfortable in this space.”

At that, Kara’s head turned to Cat, looking for an explanation. “Why don’t we sit.” Cat said instead, gesturing to the chairs that Kara had been rearranging when Jake came in. Once they’d all complied, Cat turned to face Kara.

“ _Kara_ ,” She started, looking over her shoulder to make eye-contact with Jake as she said her assistant’s name, ignoring his own muttering of “Snarky”, followed by more scribbling in his notebook, turning instead to look at Kara again. “After everything that’s been happening in the past few weeks, I’ve thought it might be wise for us to consult with a third – neutral – party to ensure that we can continue to work together successfully.”

“You didn’t talk to Kara about this first?” Jake interrupted from his spot across from them. “We’ll have to add communication skills to our list.” He was already jotting it down, Cat ignored him.

“Jake is the best multi-person therapist in the state, and he has agreed to see us for the next few months.”

“Couple’s therapist.” Jake corrected.

“Couple’s therapist?” Kara repeated questioningly.

“Technically,” Cat acquiesced with an eye roll, “he is a couple’s therapist, but he has also shown great success mediating workplace conflicts and has agreed to combine his skill sets to help us with our situation.”

_“Wait so he’s not a medical doctor? How did he cure polio?”_

_“He didn’t cure polio, Astra, Kara was just exaggerating. Anyways…”_

“Our situation?” Kara asked.

“Yes, our situation. Really Kiera, try to keep up.” Cat said.

“Cat,” Jake admonished, “ _Kara_ , has just been blindsided with this information, it’s natural that she’d have some questions. Kara,” he turned to address her, “what questions do you have?”

Kara turned to look at Cat, almost as if asking permission to ask the questions she had. Jake started scribbling in his notebook again.

“Do you have a question for Cat?” He asked as his pen glided across the paper.

“What exactly do you mean by our situation?” She asked, trying to sound confident, becoming hyper-aware of Jake’s scribbling every time she opened her mouth.

Cat sighed but answered nonetheless, “Our professional relationship has obviously been suffering in the past few months, despite our best efforts to get it back on track, we have reached a point where I believe outside help is the best solution.”

“Because of what happened with Siobhan?” Kara asked, Cat had yet to fill her in completely on the details and no matter how hard she pushed Winn, he was just as silent on the topic.

“In part.” Cat answered but didn’t give any more.

“So how does this work?” Kara asked, turning to address Jake.

“Well, typically, this type of therapy can be accomplished in twelve weeks or under. In my experience, any more than that can cause heightened tensions and be detrimental. This will be considered week one. This week is mostly just about meeting and getting a baseline set, I’ve already jotted down a few notes but next week we’ll be discussing your own observations, and starting with an exercise or two.

“You’ll have weekly ‘homework’, I’ve already begun to adapt a few of my normal exercises for your unique situation. Our main objective will be rebuilding your foundation. My prerogative is that all relationships ought to be centered around respect for our partners. To help make this possible we’ll be focusing specifically on six areas, Safety, Accountability, Trust, Cooperation, Support, and Honesty.

“I’ll explain more as we go, there’s no point in us putting the cart before the horse here. Typically, we’ll meet for fifty minutes, although we can extend that if necessary, after today though, it won’t ever be less than that. With this being the first week, our session will be shorter than usual. We’ll finish up the Q&A and then I’ll give you your homework. What other questions do you have?”

“We’ll continue to meet here?” Kara asked, looking around the room.

“Yes, well, it is a bit unfortunate,” Cat said, glancing around as well, “But it would be suspicious if I were to be seen entering a couple therapist’s office with my assistant, my office is off limits for the same reason, and this way we don’t have to take any more time than necessary out of our work day.”

Kara just nodded, still trying to take it all in.

“Anything else?” Jake asked, both women shook their heads. “Okay, well, if you think of something, you can always email me throughout the week or call the office. Now for your homework,” He reached into his bag and pulled out two leather bound notebooks, handing one to each of them, “this week, I want you to start recording your interactions together, write about what happened, how it left you feeling, what you would have changed, et cetera, this will just help me get a feel for what areas need our attention. Don’t discuss them with each other before we see each other again, these can sometimes ruffle some feathers, and I want to make sure you’re in a safe space when we discuss them.

“Okay,” he said, a content smile on his face, “that’s all I have for you, we’ll plan on meeting the same time next Tuesday.” He stood and shook both of their hands and gestured for them to exit the room first.

As the three of them stood outside the elevator bank, Cat not wanting to see him pull out his little notebook again by going to her own private elevator, Kara fiddled with the notebook in her hands hoping that this awkwardness would fade before next week.

///

**Week Two**

“Okay, now that is just not fair!” Cat exclaimed, throwing her hands up incredulously.

“Cat,” Jake drew out her name in admonishment, something that had already happened enough for Kara to need fingers _and_ toes to keep track of it, “do I need to run through our rules _again_?”

Cat harrumphed and folded her arms across her chest, pushing herself further into the corner of the couch she’d had ordered just for their sessions.

“Kara, would you like to continue?” He asked, turning his attention back to her.

 _“No, Kara would not like to continue.”_ She thought to herself.

The session had started out fine, things were still a little awkward, but Cat had made a point to assure her multiple times throughout the week not to be nervous about it, promising that this really was to help them learn to work together again.

When they’d come in, Kara tightly clutching her notebook as though she was afraid Cat would grab it away and tear into her for the things she’d written, Cat unaware as she tutted pleasantly at the changes Kara had been tasked with overseeing in the office space they were using, now looking much more inviting; similar in its sleekness to Cat’s office, with a few colorful pieces that had an idiosyncrasy that was all Kara.

Jake, who’d arrived before them and had begun to set his own area up, welcomed them in, running through pleasantries in a way that set Kara at ease. He then told them he wanted to discuss their homework and ran through a list of ground rules:

  * No name calling
  * Don’t interrupt or blurt
  * Be honest
  * Be patient
  * Be respectful
  * Listen and respond
  * Attack the behavior not the person
  * Don’t invalidate your partner’s feelings
  * Don’t break confidence
  * Phones in the basket



Cat had broken eight out of ten so far, although in fairness, the name calling hadn’t been directed toward Kara.

“Kara?” Jake’s voice pulled her attention back, and with one more nervous glance toward Cat, she looked back at the notebook open in her lap and picked up where she’d left off.

“On Thursday, we briefly lost power, Miss Grant threatened to fire me three times over the thirty minutes that it took to get it restored.” Kara said, somewhat meekly, not mentioning the colorful language that had accompanied each threat.

“How did the interaction make you feel?” Jake asked, barely catching Cat’s eye roll at the predictability of the question.

“Like she didn’t value me.” Kara answered, hearing Cat’s neck crack as it snapped to the side, taking Kara in.

“Cat, you have a response?”

“Of course I value her.” Cat told Jake as though it were obvious.

“Don’t tell me, tell Kara.” He redirected.

Cat sighed and looked at the woman sitting next to her, “Kara,” she started, pulling Kara’s attention away from the invisible lint she was picking at on the couch. “I value you, I wouldn’t be here, subjecting myself to Jake’s poor choice of cologne, if I didn’t.”

Kara had to contain her smile as she saw Jake lift his shirt to his nose out of the corner of her eye. A second later, he dropped it and shook his head, focusing his attention back on Cat who was still watching Kara, trying to study her reaction to the words.

“Cat, perhaps we could discuss why you threatened to fire Kara to begin with, you say it’s obvious that you don’t want to lose her as your assistant, but from what I’ve heard, your words and actions don’t always reflect that sentiment.”

“I suppose I was frustrated that Kara spent ten minutes talking on the phone with Kyle down in printing instead of calling the head electrician.” She explained.

“Kara?”

“Oh. Well, we’ve recently installed new software to our printers, the power-outage could have compromised the machinery if they weren’t properly shut down, I was talking Kyle through the process of getting them keyed into one of the back-up generators, otherwise we’d be forced to outsource tomorrow’s print to a third party printer which isn’t advisable given that two of the stories we’re running are susceptible to being scooped by The Planet. And I spoke to Kyle specifically because his daughter plays softball with our head electrician’s daughter; you’d be surprised by how far compliment about the improvement of your kid’s fast pitch will go.”

Cat couldn’t help the impressed raise of her eyebrow, she’d been vaguely aware of the software update but not of risk it posed, and she hasn’t even known that Kyle had a daughter.

“Cat,” Jake started imploringly as though something had only just occurred to him, but Cat knew whatever he was about to say was probably a planned move, “aside from frustrated, how were you feeling during the power outage? Thirty minutes doesn’t seem like an excessive amount of time, in fact it’s actually somewhat impressive.”

Cat turned her head to look at the wall as she spoke. “I may have been a bit frightened.” She admitted nonchalantly, but Kara couldn’t help the shock that colored her features because Cat had never so openly admitted to being afraid, at least not to Kara Danvers. “There’s a disgruntled ex-employee of mine that has attacked at our office twice, her visits are usually preceded with some sort of electrical malfunction.”

“You were worried about Livewire?” Kara asked, forgetting about Jake for a moment.

Cat glanced at Kara briefly, before turning to look away, her features hardening once more, not wanting to be judged.

“Hey,” Kara said, reaching out to place a hand on Cat’s bicep, “I’m sorry that you were freaked out, I didn’t know you were still concerned about her. For what it’s worth, I had Winn write a program that will alert us to any non-organic malfunctions within any of our systems, and the police promised we’d be their first call if she ever tries anything.”

Cat looked up, and that validation Kara had been craving was shining brightly in her eyes, “Thank you.” She said sincerely, neither of them noticing the curious look Jake was giving them.

Kara smiled brightly and decided maybe this whole thing wasn’t such a bad idea.

“Okay, so our session is almost up, let’s talk about your homework for next week.” Jake started, and what he said next had Kara revising that last thought. “This exercise is designed to let you walk a mile in your partner’s shoes…”

_“Why would they trade shoes? Wouldn’t that be uncomfortable?”_

_“Astra it’s an expression, just keep listening.”_

///

**Week 3**

“So how did we do this week?” Jake asked, and Cat resisted the urge to reach across the coffee table that separated them to slap the douche off his face because the use of the ‘royal we’ was very high on her list of unforgivable grievances sitting just below “white people who don’t vaccinate their children” and “cars with an absorbent amount of bumper stickers” _because let’s be honest, you’re not opinionated, you’re an asshole_.

“I personally _feel_ ,” She emphasized the word for his benefit, “that the exercise was a success.” She glanced sideways toward Kara, who had her hand down, fiddling with her fingers in her lap.

“Kara would you agree?” Jake asked.

“I-uh,” She stuttered out, face scrunched up like a child that got caught playing in their mother’s make-up kit, “it was enlightening.” She settled on.

“Enlightening indeed.” Cat said, unable to resist the delighted little shoulder shimmy. “I really feel as though we learned a lot about each other this week.” She said through a smirk, the red hue on Kara’s face deepening by the second.

“In what ways?” He asked, his words directed toward Cat but his eyes curiously taking Kara in.

“Well…”

_Kara stepped off of Cat’s private elevator on Friday morning, feeling half the bullpen’s eye on her. Unlike her first time doing so, under the influence of RedK, she felt uncomfortable and overwhelmed, even before the day began._

_Cat was insistent that they go at this exercise full force, and Kara could have sworn she heard an irritated whisper of “showing that PhD toting punk who’s holding back”._

_Kara had to stop herself from dropping her things at her desk and going into Cat’s office to adjust the thermostat to Cat’s “morning temperature” as was her usual routine before her boss showed up. Instead, she continued past her own desk right into what she felt would be a glass stage for the day, all eyes on her as she pushed the door open._

_She quickly dropped her bag into the chair in the corner behind Cat’s desk, before continuing toward one of the couches to wait for her boss to arrive. They’d agreed that the only concession to their role reversal was that Cat wouldn’t be showing up an hour early like Kara did because the only time she missed a day dropping her son off to school was when she was out of town on business._

_Kara had been sitting, hands tucked under her knees, back ramrod straight for ten minutes when there was a light knock at the door. She looked up to see Winn gazing at her peculiarly._

_“Uh, Kara? Everything okay?”_

_“Yep.” She said too enthusiastically, popping her ‘p’ with gumption._

_“Really?” He asked again, coming closer. “Let me look at your eyes,” He continued “ya know, make sure they’re not all glow-y and red.”_

_“I’m not under the influence of Red Kryotonite.” She swore, lowering her voice so that the vultures outside glass doors wouldn’t hear her._

_“You sure? Because you’re kinda just sitting here in Miss Grant’s office like a marionette whose strings are too tight.” He persisted._

_“Close the door.” She told him._

_He looked suspicious but did it anyway, turning back around while fiddling with his tie nervously. “So…”_

_“Jake is making us do an exercise where we trade places for the day. And I really thought Cat would somehow get us out of it but she’s become very gung-ho about it.”_

_“Your couple’s therapist wants you to run CatCo. for a day?” He asked, then froze, face lighting up with childish glee. “You’re going to be our boss for the day? Does that mean you can like, order us all to play video games and eat our weight in pizzas?”_

_“No.” She said firmly. “This is going to be just a normal day, I’m going to keep a low profile, try not to destroy the company, and hope that Cat doesn’t kill me before five pm.”_

_“What about Supergirl?” He asked. “No offence, but when Kara Danvers leaves, usually only James and I notice, but when Kara Danvers temporary CEO uses her private balcony as a flight pad, there might be some talk.”_

_“Supergirl has the day off, Alex and Lucy promised they could handle things without me.” She told him. “Look, it’s going to be a normal day, Cat doesn’t have any meetings scheduled, I made sure to get her final approval on everything for next week yesterday, I’ll just sit, answer a few emails, and try not to need her too much.”_

_Winn smirked. “I still can’t believe you guys have a couple’s therapist, how weird is that?”_

_Kara glared at him using all the tools she’d learned from Cat over the years, “We’re trying to rebuild our working relationship, or would you like a new desk mate?”_

_“No, no, you’re right, it’s not weird. It’s totally normal that the woman who’s probably more powerful than the leader of the free world and her secret alien assistant regularly meet with a trained professional to hash out their work problems.” When Kara’s glare strengthened, he cleared his throat, “I mean, I have no opinion on the matter, you’re two consenting adults who know what’s best for yourselves?”_

_Kara nodded, about to say something when her ears perked up. She could hear Cat coming up to their floor, taking…the public elevator?_

_“You should probably go, she’s almost in.” Kara warned him, watching him scramble back to his desk._

_Thirty seconds later, Kara could see Cat as she stepped off the elevator, not bothering to hide her disgust as she pushed through the hordes of lowly employees to make it to her own office, carrying a large coffee and a pastry box._

_“Miss Danvers.” She greeted as she stepped through the door. “Your coffee.” She handed the cup to Kara, who was surprised to find it wasn’t the black house brew she’d told Cat to get when she was asked the night before but instead pumpkin spice with cinnamon that was usually only seasonal, how Cat had managed to get Sammy to make it in the middle of April was a mystery._

_Cat also placed the box down on the coffee table, opening it to reveal a dozen crullers. Kara didn’t even try to contain her excited gasp, looking wide eyed between the box and Cat who just smirked knowingly._

_“Shall we?” Cat asked, gesturing behind them._

_“Of course.” She stood and followed Cat out of the glass doors._

_“Alright people, listen up,” Cat started, they’d agreed she should be the one to do this, “A few nights ago, during my weekly poker game with Ellen, I lost a bet to Jen Aniston that requires Kiera and I to switch roles for the day. Not to worry, the International Poker Federation is investigating, as it is well known that Aniston is a Card Shark, who has almost lost her privileges to play in our league before. Nonetheless, it has never been said that I lack the integrity to follow through on an agreement and so, just for today, Kiera will be taking on the role as your dutiful leader and I that of the lowly assistant who cries into her microwaved pasta at lunch. With that being said, go back to your jobs before Miss Danvers here fires you.”_

_They all turned around and headed back to their own desks, murmuring to each other in confusion. Cat turned to Kara, “Is there anything you needed Miss Danvers?” She asked._

_“Um…no?” Kara replied, really hoping they’d just sail through this day without much fuss, but Cat wasn’t having it, one perfectly sculpted eyebrow coming up just enough to let Kara know she meant business._

_“I mean, I guess there’s that filing on my desk that needs to get done.” Kara suggested._

_“Of course, Miss Danvers, right away.”_

_Kara turned and went back into Cat’s office, awkwardly taking a seat behind Cat’s desk and logging into the computer. She figured she might as well get some work done herself. She managed to get a few emails answered, and was shuffling through a test print for a new publication Cat wanted to start running, a special project aimed at girls under eighteen, when Cat walked back in._

_“The filing is all done, what can I do next?” She asked coming to stand in front of her own desk._

_“Could you call down to twenty-three and see if Alicia can come up here?” Kara asked._

_Cat narrowed her eyes slightly but did what she was asked, using her own phone and waiting patiently until the project manager Kara requested was knocking lightly on her door._

_“You wanted to see me Miss Grant?” She asked hesitantly, eyeing Kara sitting behind the desk._

_“Actually, Miss Danvers requested you.” Cat responded, going to take a seat where Kara would usually sit during these things, pulling out a pad of paper that Kara hadn’t even noticed her holding to take minutes._

_“Oh, okay…” It seemed the news of their switch hadn’t yet made it through all the floors, but she sat anyway, and gave Kara her full attention._

_“I was just reading through the first test print,” Kara started, “I think it’s a good starting point, but I have a few notes that I’d like to make. First, the article about ‘7 Things Boys Like’ needs to be pulled, we don’t care what boys like, this is about the girls. Next, there needs to be a rewrite of the article about STEM fields. My sister is a female scientist and even she would find that piece boring and tedious. It’s such a great topic, but it’s too factual, there’s plenty of room to put a little fun and humor in there, to really start a discussion._

_“That can actually be said for a lot of this first draft, it’s very dichotomous, the pieces are either poppy and brainless or dry and wordy. The young girls we’re trying to inspire are not so two-dimensional, they’re complex and they deserve for us to understand the intersectionality of their lives and to provide them content that proves it._

_“I don’t want this to sound like I’m bashing you, there’s a lot of usable material in here that could be adjusted to better fit the ideals we hold here at CatCo. Furthermore, I know you Alicia, and I know that you are very capable of going above and beyond what’s expected of you, so this isn’t me doubting your abilities, I just want to make sure we’re doing our best to raise up a new generation of young women by giving them role models such as yourself to inspire them.” She finished, and Cat had to admit she was impressed, it was a much nicer route than she’d have gone but Alicia seemed to respond positively to it, promising to make the requested changes and to have a handful of specifically pointed out pieces revised and sent up by closing that day._

_The rest of the afternoon continued in the same manner, Cat relying on her many years of working for Perry White to guide her, and Kara growing increasingly more emboldened. It was almost entertaining to watch the thrill shoot across Kara’s face each time she made the kind of decision that was usually reserved solely for Cat._

_At least until 2:17pm._

_Cat had noticed the increased attention she’d been receiving throughout the day, partially because of the odd circumstances, and partially because it wasn’t often that she was close enough to her employees for them to get such a good look at her. And it was also true that Kara’s desk was set up for somebody three inches taller than she was, so where Kara could easily reach across and pick up the phone when it rang, Cat had to lean just a little bit further, and if Derek used that as an excuse to look down her shirt every few minutes then Cat would just think of some way to torture him on Monday._

_Kara however, had different plans, yelling out from inside Cat’s office for the man to come join her. Cat watched with barely disguised raptor as Kara tore into the useless lifestyle editor, feet kicked up on Cat’s desk like she owned the place, which for the day she did. It wasn’t until Cat heard the words “jobless” and “on the streets” that she decided to intervene._

_Under the guise of bringing Kara a fresh coffee, she entered the office, and covertly managed to get the girl out onto the balcony where she explained how useful Derek was as a tension reliever in their morning meetings, because if she couldn’t scream at him, she’d just scream at Kara, which seemed to be enough to break Kara from the power-trip she’d been riding, hand coming up to cover her mouth as she realized how far she taken this role reversal._

_Cat however found it amusing, and after Derek had been released back to his desk, with a stern warning about his inappropriate behavior, Cat picked up the phone on her desk and placed a call to the Swiss masseuse that she kept on retainer. She met Kara back out on the balcony a few moments later._

_“Miss Grant, I am so sorry.” Kara apologized again._

_“Don’t. This is what this exercise is all about. Now, go back in there and finish out the day, Florian will be here at five-thirty for your massage.” Before Kara had time to question it, Cat had left, returning to Kara’s desk and picking up where she’d left off._

As Cat finished telling Jake of the events of the previous week, Kara sunk further into her place on the couch, chin dropping to her chest, unable to contain the glimpse of horror that crossed her face as she listened to Cat retell the completely accurate story of their day.

“Oh my god, did you really try to fire somebody?” Jake asked through a laugh.

“Jacob!” Cat snapped in the maternal warning tone that was usually reserved for the very rare occasions when Carter would get in trouble.

Kara was pulled from her embarrassment, eyes dodging back and forth between Cat and Jake, suddenly realizing that she’d missed something, the disapproving look Cat was giving him clearly told her that there existed a relationship between them that went beyond that of therapist and patient.

“Oh, right, sorry!” Jake apologized, looking at Kara sincerely. “That was unprofessional. I suppose, I too, am requiring an adjustment period to the nuances of such a unique situation.”

Kara was pretty sure he was over-correcting for pretty much being mom-ed by Cat but she let it slide, giving him a small nod but saying nothing. Jake seemed to understand that this perhaps, wasn’t the moment to push her to talk, and filled the silence himself.

“This is always such an interesting exercise,” he began, “being able to take the perspective of those close to us is an important and undervalued tool, so much of the conflict we face on a daily basis could be avoided if we were able to think about our partner’s point of view.

“Think about a young child,” he continued, “pretend play is a significant chunk of how they learn to make sense of the world. It’s not unusual for a child to want to pretend to be their mother or teacher or favorite superhero. This is their way of breaking out of the egocentricity of infant and toddlerhood and through this they learn how to think outside of themselves. - ”

_“Kara once spent an entire week pretending to be a bird, which was very odd since they’d been extinct for a few hundred years by then.”_

_“Aunt Astra!”_

“ - It’s a skill that I encourage all of my clients to exercise more often.” He finished his thought and looked down at his watch, surprised to see how much time had passed.

“Okay, we’re getting close to the end of our session so I’m not going to force either of you to stay longer and discuss the experience, but I urge you both to be thinking about it as you complete your homework for next week, where we can address it if we need to.”

Cat scowled a little, this was supposed to be her week to shine, she’d done everything he’s asked with little complaint and he didn’t even acknowledge it.

“As for said homework, you’ll be making appreciation lists.” He said, either not noticing the look Cat was giving him or not caring, “It’s pretty self-explanatory, as the week goes on, I want you thinking about all the things you appreciate about each other and track it in your notebooks, again keep these confidential from each other until our session, but if you find that you want to encourage each other and let your appreciation show you are free to do so.”

Cat rolled her eyes because really this whole thing was ridiculous, she could have come up with half of it on her own, but she didn’t complain, figuring she’d jot down a few quick things about Kara always bringing her coffee at the perfect temperature and be done with it. It’s not like she had ten ideas of what to put down before the elevator reached their floor or anything.

///

**Week 4**

Cat sat at her desk, staring at the page in her notebook that was open in front of her, the page that was like the other ten pages before it, and the next five after that, filled with her slightly skewed yet to-the-point scrawl. She kind of hated herself for it because no matter how many times she studied it she couldn’t find flaw with the words, couldn’t grab onto an excuse for why she’d written them other than that they were true. Unfortunately, they weren’t the kinds of truths she’d been expecting or would be willing to share. These were truths that were impossible for her to label because in a professional relationship the fact that she enjoys Kara’s company when they’re just sitting in her in companionable silence should not make it onto her list.

Sure, she had been making more of an effort with Kara since the Siobhan debacle, because she’d come to realize that maybe professional wasn’t synonymous with cruel, but it also wasn’t synonymous with filling up nearly sixteen pages full of reasons why she…liked…the damn girl.

There was no way she could bring this into their session and not have Jacob see right through her knowing from personal experience what a perceptive little asshole he could be.

She flipped instead to a clean page, glancing at her clock to see that she had to be downstairs in ten minutes, she took her fountain pen and with a few quick swipes, she’d managed to fill up a page with acceptable but non-suggestive reasons that Kara made a good assistant. Setting the pen back into its holder, she grabbed the notebook and made her way to her private elevator noticing Kara’s desk was already empty, she knew she’d have to hurry because Kara seemed to effortlessly make it into Jake’s good graces and despite everything she’d done for the little shit he really seemed to want to put her through the ringer.

She arrived just in time to see Kara slip through the office door and was grateful for the extra minute and a half her private elevator always saved her.

As she entered the converted office, Kara looked up and hit her with one of those dazzling Sunny Danvers Smiles™ and if it hadn’t made it onto her list by Wednesday last week, she’d feel compelled to grab the pen Jake was always holding and scribble it in now.

“Now that we’re all here, why don’t we get started.”

She handed him her phone to put in the basket that sits under his chair before taking a seat at her end of the couch, taking care to set her notebook between the cushion and the arm of the sofa in an attempt to distance its contents from their muse.

“So last week, we had a bit of a chance to talk about your role reversal exercise and you were both given homework to come up with a list of things you appreciate about each other while using your experience as a starting point. Who’d like to go first?” He asked, looking between the two of them. Kara still looked a little embarrassed while Cat just looked bored.

“Cat, since you’re clearly so excited to be here, why don’t you start?” He said it as a question but it was obvious to her that she had no choice in the matter.

She cleared her throat and began, pulling her notebook into her lap but keeping it closed. “Yes, well, as you both know I spent many years as assistant to Perry White so I honestly didn’t find the whole task all that edifying in terms of Kara’s daily plight, although I did learn a lot about my employees, and I suppose the first item on my list would be a kudos to Kara for not murdering them all yet, perhaps not for a lack of trying,” She said, looking pointedly at Kara whose breath caught for a second, sure Cat was about to mention the RedK incident, she’d had a feeling it’d tipped her boss off to something but so far it’d gone unmentioned, “honestly, the constant cycle of unfortunately colored cardigans would be enough to give any one of them a brain aneurysm.”

“Cat.” Jake warned while Kara sighed with relief.

“Okay,” She put her hands up in mock-defense before carefully opening her notebook to the page she’d dog-eared, “let’s see, things I appreciate about Kara: Kara is always prompt, Kara doesn’t need to be asked twice, Kara is highly organized, Kara makes my mother angry, Kara’s dictation is always legible.” She finished and looked up, for her part Kara looked pleased, Jake on the other hand looked disappointed and she gritted her teeth.

He was about to say something when Kara beat him to it. “Thank you, Miss Grant.” Her voice was sincere and it broke Cat’s heart a little bit because if she was being honest, what she’d just read of was worth the disappointment that was coming off Jake in waves, but the fact that Kara was honestly so appreciative of the crumbs being thrown at her feet told her she just how badly she’d treated the girl since everything that’d happened with Bizzaro. She was on the verge of calling her own bluff and telling Kara her real thoughts when the girl continued.

“Okay, my turn,” She started, opening her own notebook, “Miss Grant gracefully balances the power she holds,” she says it sheepishly, obvious a slight to her own power-trip the week before, “Miss Grant always knows when something’s bothering me, Miss Grant gives the best advice, Miss Grant cares about National City and its people, Miss Grant can make the difficult choices, Miss Grant…” It goes on like this for another five minutes, three and half pages singing her praises, all well thought out, all genuine, not all of them within the realm of strictly professional but not as close to the edge of something else that Cat had gotten. With each passing compliment, Cat could feel her guilt growing, and none of this felt good anymore.

“Thank you Kara, that was very thoughtful.” She heard Jake say as Kara came to an end.

“Yes, Kara, thank you.” She said, voice soft, meeting here briefly before looking down at her hands that are still wrapped tightly around her own notebook. She can feel Kara’s concerned gaze on her, and knows Jake is about to start in on how much better Kara did than her.

“Now that you’ve both had the chance to-” He’s cut off by Cat’s phone ringing in the basket that sat under his chair. She’d had her phone put on silent, the only two people who Cat’s phone would always ring for were her boys which she’d told Jake on day one. He quickly reached down and handed her the device.

She immediately recognized the number from Carter’s school and felt that panic bubble in her chest that always accompanied these calls.

“Hello?...Hi Sweetie, are you alright?…no, that’s okay…Carter you never have to apologize for that, you know that…okay…I’m on my way…I love you too…I’ll see you soon.” She ended the call, and looked up. “Carter isn’t feeling well; I have to go.” She told them, already standing.

“Do you need anything?” Kara was asked, moving to follow.

“No Kara, but thank you.” It felt odd to say, and Kara was obviously taken aback by nicety but she didn’t have time to dwell with her baby waiting for her.

“Cat, just a heads-up, we’re on singles next week.” Jake said just as she was about to pass through the door.

She barely looked back, tossing back a quick, “Fine, tell Kara the specifics.”, before disappearing into her elevator.

Carter truly did look miserable, and the next two days she was forced to work from home; not in the least surprised when Carter’s favorite soup was mysteriously delivered four times before he was well enough to return to school.

///

**Week 5**

Singles as it turns out meant that they would not be meeting with Jake together, but would rather be seeing him individually for twenty-five minutes each. Kara was scheduled to go first and even though she wasn’t sure what to expect, she bounded happily down to the thirty-eighth floor, a spring in her step.

So far, she was pleased with this whole couple’s therapy thing, even after nearly over-throwing Cat, she liked Jake and felt that things with Cat were going better than they had in a long time, even if Cat didn’t seem as enthusiastic about it as she did.

Which is probably why she wasn’t expecting what came next.

“Hey Jake.” She greeted him with a smile as she came through the door, handing him her phone before taking a seat on the couch.

“Kara,” he smiled, “how’s your week been?”

“Good, a little busy. Cat was out of the office with Carter until Friday last week so we’ve been trying to catch-up.”

“Hmm,” He hummed. “Do you do that often?”

“What?” She asked, a nervous smile coming to her face.

“You just called her Cat, but during every other session it’s always been Miss Grant.” He told her.

“She’s my boss, it’s just a professional curtesy.” She couldn’t completely hide the defensiveness in her voice, pushing back further into the couch, arms coming up to cross over her chest.

“It’s not one that she extends to you.” He replies.

“That’s different, she’s the boss.” She was watching him now, tracking his movement the way she would if she were with Alex interrogating a prisoner at the DEO.

“And you’re the assistant.” He finished.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“Is it?” He asked.

“What is this?” She demanded. “I feel like you’re trying to get me to walk into a trap.”

He sighed flashed her one of his usual disarming smiles, “I’m sorry, that’s not what I was going for I promise. This time is meant for you and I to have an honest discussion about your relationship dynamic with Cat, and your specific role in it.”

“Which is what?” She asked.

“In my observation, I believe that the two of you have cultivated something of a co-dependency with each other.”

“A co-dependency?” She laughed.

“You think that’s funny?” His tone was genuinely curious.

“We’re not co-dependent, my job is to give Cat what she needs.” She told him.

“Do you like that?” He asked.

“What? Do I like my job?” She asked “Yes. I love my job.”

“No, not that, do you like being the one to give Cat what she needs?” He was twirling his pen between his fingers absentmindedly and she had the urge to grab it from him and snap it in half.

“It’s my job.”

“Yes, we’ve established that, what I want to know is if you like being the one that Cat needs?”

“I don’t know how to answer that.” She was shaking her head in frustration with this line of questioning.

“Can I tell you what I think?” He asked rhetorically, continuing after a beat of silence. “I think that it makes you happy to know that Cat depends on you. I think you like being able to give her the things that nobody else can. I think you have the power to make or break CatCo.-”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“No, I don’t think you would, but if you wanted to you could. You’re the one that keeps Cat happy, makes sure she’s productive and that everything is running smoothly.”

“It’s my _job_.” She reiterated.

“Kara, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. Everybody likes to be appreciated, to know that the work they’re doing is valued and bringing some good into the world. I just want you to be aware of it, so that it doesn’t spin out of control.”

She looked down. “We had a falling out.” She admitted. “I messed up and she hired another assistant to prove a point.”

“What point was that?”

“That I wasn’t cutting it? That I needed to step up my game?”

“So you’ve redoubled your efforts to prove a point right back?”

Kara sighed. _“Stupid Jake.”_ She thought.

///

Cat reached the door to the converted office just as Kara was coming out, huffing and muttering under her breath, barely even giving her a hello as she walked past.

“What did you say to Kara?” She asked, not even waiting for the door to close behind her.

“So you do care?” He asked, reaching his hand out for her phone.

“Of course I care; I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t.” She dropped the phone in his hand and took a seat in her usual spot.

“Really?” He asked.

“You know how much I hate the run-around, if you have something to say, just say it.”

“You’re not taking this seriously.”

She scoffed.

“Why are you here?” He asked.

“You tell me.”

“Honestly?” He asked, continuing after her nod, “I have two theories. The first is that you don’t want this to work; you’ve made it clear that you’re trying to reestablish the professional boundaries in your relationship, which is why you’re here, but you’re not trying, so I think you might be waiting for everything to fall apart again so you can say you tried and throw in the towel.

“Or, you genuinely do want to keep Kara as your assistant, but you’ve realized that the professional boundaries you put in place are too stifling and now you’re stalling out. So which is it?”

She didn’t answer.

“Either way, you’re going to lose her.”

Her eyes snapped to his but she stayed silent.

“Either you fire her or she’ll leave. If you don’t start putting in some effort, if you don’t start working to forgive her for whatever caused this whole thing in the first place, then she’s going to burn out trying to get your attention and leave.”

She sighed, knowing he was right.

“Can I be honest with you for a minute, no therapist talk, just you and I?” He asked, and she gave him a small nod, encouraging him to continue.

“I want to see you happy.” He admitted. “You saved my life, Cat. When you asked me to do this, I accepted because I want to be able to repay you for that.”

“You saved your own life.” She replied.

“Yeah, well, maybe I didn’t know it was worth saving until you told me so.” He gave a small self-depreciating laugh.

“Jacob…” She sighed and that maternal instinct was kicking in again.

He waved her off, “I’m going to tell you the same thing you told me: You’re smart and you’re capable so put it to good use, deep down you know what you want, so pull your head out of your ass and do what needs to be done.”

“That sounded a lot better when I was saying it.” She told him.

“Yeah,” he agreed, “must be your rosy disposition.”

She couldn’t help but laugh and for a few seconds she could see him as the punk kid who sat with her inside of a dingy bar trying to convince her to buy him a beer as he told her everything he knew about the O’Callaghan brothers and the corruption they’d spread through the streets of Boston.

“You’ve got to start trying Cat.” He said seriously when she’d quieted.

“I know.” She agreed.

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

///

“And that’s what you missed, on Glee.” Alex said as she finished catching Astra up to speed.

“Wait, so how exactly is this a competition?” Astra asked.

A collective groan rang out through the group.

“Okay so…” Lucy started again.

From where she sat, Kara tuned them out, already plotting ways to get out of next week’s session.  _Stupid Jake._


	2. Weeks 6-7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys sorry this took so long to get back up, parts of this chapter had me flustered but I wanted to get it up after tonight's finale, so I spent most of my day cracking down on it, I hope you enjoy, Happy Finale Day y'all!

“You’re being quite aggressive today, Little One.” Astra said as she dodged another of Kara’s hard swings, using her niece’s forward momentum to her advantage, grabbing Kara’s wrist as it swung past her pulling her farther forward while sweeping her ankles, sending her crashing onto her stomach. With a grunt Kara was back on her feet and moving toward her once more, not bothering to justify her eagerness.

It’d been going like this for at least twenty minutes, and Astra was glad she’d offered to be her niece’s sparring partner today. Even with the kryptonite-emitters dampening her strength, Kara was coming full force in a way that could have easily harmed any of the human agents, who instead stood off to the side, watching the match that was becoming increasingly intense and entertaining.

“You are upset.” Astra continued a little breathless after being thrown hard and landing on her back, knocking the wind out of her.

“I’m not upset.” Kara grumbled, trying not to lose focus.

“No, I suppose not.” Astra replied, then stayed silent, as they circled each other again. It was a technique that always worked on Kara when she was younger, agree with whatever she tells you and then stop talking, she’d usually only last thirty seconds before feeling the need to fill the silence.

This time was no exception.

“I’m just confused.”

“Hmm.” Astra considered that for a moment. “Well, I have learned that these women can be very helpful with that.” She said, holding up one arm to block a hit while the other gestured behind her to where Alex, Lucy, and Vasquez stood.

“It’s just that…”

**Week 6**

Kara couldn’t come up with a good enough reason to miss therapy the next week knowing that anything short of an absolute emergency would only cause more of an issue with Jake.

Stupid Jake.

She knew he was only trying to help which made it worse because he _was_ a trained professional, and maybe there _was_ some stock in what he was saying.

Maybe she did take some satisfaction in being the one to give Cat the world, both as Kara Danvers Assistant Extraordinaire and as Supergirl the hero who’d saved The Tribune and Cat Grant herself. But was that really a bad thing?

Their girls’ night had helped, Alex tugged her close and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, whispering that everything would work out the way it needed to, and Kara was grateful that despite her obvious amusement with the situation, she didn’t make her feel silly for how she felt.

After they’d finished recapping Kara’s last five weeks in couple’s therapy, they’d introduced Astra to a few drinking games. Kara ate her weight in ice cream and root beer, Lucy laughed like she’d never been happier in her life, Vasquez smirked every time Alex was forced to take a shot, it was exactly what she needed. They’d all ended up crashing in Kara’s living room, none of them sober enough to make it home. Kara drifted off with her head resting on Astra’s shoulder and her feet squeezed under her sister’s thigh, feeling lighter than she had in nearly a month.

Still, she’d been having a hard time all week, she was trying to distance herself from Cat and could tell it was causing strain as Cat was taking the opposite approach. It made her wonder what Jake had said to the other woman to cause such a sudden change. It was frustrating and she honestly felt like things were worse now than they had been before because at least then she could throw herself into doing whatever Cat wanted with the hope that eventually they’d fix things; now Cat was finally starting to act like things were getting better and Kara couldn’t even settle into it because Jake had her questioning her every move.

Now sitting there in the office space that suddenly felt too small, she could feel that anger bubbling up again. Cat was watching her peculiarly, very much tuned in to the fact that something was off with her assistant. Kara _almost_ felt guilty about it, knowing that to Cat, it must seem like she’d had a sudden personality change, but frankly, her anger was almost equally split between the other two in the room, Jake for calling her out the week before and Cat for starting this whole mess in the first place.

She looked at her watch again; Thirty-six minutes and forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine seconds in. She’d made it this far without opening her mouth, only thirteen minutes left to go.

Cat and Jake were both prattling on about what’d been happening in the last week and something about setting goals for the next six weeks, she vaguely remembered doing the same thing at the beginning of their second session but Jake was insisting that they revisit it now that they were at their half-way point.

She tuned them out, listening to the clocks in the building tick in rotation, briefly entertaining the idea of synchronizing them all, Cat would probably like that. The thought only frustrated her more. She cleared her mind and just listened instead; tick, tick, tick...tick, tick…tick, tick, tick, tick…tick…

She was slowly integrating clocks from the surrounding buildings when a voice caught her attention. A woman in a loft two blocks away was on the phone with her mother complaining about her boyfriend and his proclivity for trying a new hobby every few days. She stressed her consonants in the same way Alex did when she was irritated and Kara let herself be pulled in.

She couldn’t help the snort that she let out at the explanation of what extreme ironing was, imagining herself pressing her cape high above the clouds. Then, she felt two sets of eyes on her, _busted._

“Kara?” Jake was talking to her now, she’d missed part of what he said while she was shutting her senses back down.

“I’m sorry?” She turned her attention to him, now only hearing the ticking of their watches.

“Are you alright?” He asked, watching her carefully, “You’ve been checked out and unfocused since you came in.”

“I’m fine.” She tried to brush him off, “Keep going.” She insisted, catching the way Cat’s eyes narrowed in her periphery. She’d been subtly pushing all week to find out what Jake and Kara had talked about in their one-on-one session but Kara had remained tight lipped.

“What about you, Kara?” He asked instead. “What are your goals for the rest of our time together?”

“My goals.” She drew the words out, they stuck on her tongue the way English sometimes did.

“Yes, we’re halfway through, surely you have a better idea _now_ ,” He stress the word, _“_ than when we started, of what you want to achieve.” He was watching her, face soft and open, and she could feel that almost-guilt creep up on her again but she pushed it aside trying to focus.

“What I want to achieve?” She repeated his words again.

She sat still for a minute trying to come up with something to say, something to draw their attention away from her, but her mind was blank, and before she knew it laughter was bubbling up in her throat demanding to be let out. She didn’t even try to contain it.

Then her own laughter was the only sound in her ears, getting more and more ridiculous the longer it went until she was gasping for air.

“Kara?” She felt a hand on her arm and looked over to where Cat sat, concerned and confused. She leaned into the touch, allowing it to ground her. Sobering, she turned back toward Jake.

“You know what I want?” She asked him as her giggles died down, feeling the seriousness she’d been avoiding climb her throat of its own volition, the words leaving her mouth before she’d had the chance to censor herself. “I want to go back in time to six months ago, before you, before there was another desk across from my own, before Adam,” she let his name out softly and she could feel Cat pull back, “I want to go back before every decision came with a risk analysis.”

She heard Cat sigh and she let her body sag back against the couch, resigned, sure this was going to be it. This was their humpty dumpty moment, one or both of them would break beyond repair and no amount of effort would put them back together again. She almost felt relieved about it as she brought her hands up to rub at her temples, too tired to try and backtrack.

“Then let’s do that.” Jake’s voice shook her back.

Her hands dropped back into her lap. “Do what?” She sighed, exhausted with the whole charade.

“Let’s go back to before.” He said. “I’ve been so focused on helping you move forward, that I forgot to consider all the things that are weighing you down. That was my mistake.” He admitted, looking at his watch to see they were almost out of time. “Next week, we’re going to hash it out, your homework is to compile a list of grievances and next week, we’ll air them.”

_“I don’t think I like where this is going, I’ve heard cats can be quite hostile.”_

_“Wait, Astra…you do know she’s not a real cat right?”_

///

**Week 7**

Kara fretted all week long. She could tell it was driving everybody around her crazy.

Alex looked ready to kill her, Lucy found the whole thing hilarious, Vasquez keep shooting her sympathetic looks that were a mix of “I’m sorry this is happening to you” and “Woman-up for god’s sake”, Astra was fluttering around like a helicopter mom with no idea how to fix whatever was bugging her precious niece, and Winn and James twiddled their thumbs, trying to be discrete in their concerned hovering. She hadn’t told any of them exactly what was bothering her, but they were all smart enough to figure it had something to do with Cat.

Cat. Cat, who was the only one acting like nothing out of the ordinary was going on. She always kept everything so close to the vest, never letting anybody see her as anything less than fully prepared and in control. Kara would be willing to buy it too, if she didn’t see the way the other woman’s face tightened ever so slightly every time she saw her assistant so much as pick up a pen. Kara couldn’t blame her, she’d seen Cat scribbling away in her own journal a few times throughout the week, making her feel like a cheap thrift store sweater that was slowly and painfully being unraveled and they hadn’t even had their session yet.

She was just standing from her desk to make her way down to thirty-eight when Cat called out to her, one finger held up telling her to wait. She sat on the edge of her desk and watched as Cat quickly finished what she’d been working on before gathering her things and moving toward the bullpen. As she reached Kara, she gestured for her to follow, hitting the button for her private elevator which opened immediately, not having moved from their floor since she’d arrived that morning.

Kara was a shocked but complied. They rode the first four floors in silence before Cat reached out and pulled the emergency stop button.

Her eyes were almost closed, she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Kara reached a hand out, but Cat caught it, grasping her wrist lightly before looking up at her.

For a few seconds they just watched each other, and Kara was glad because where there was usually a spark of whimsy in Cat’s eyes at the idea of tearing someone down, now they just looked dark and sorry. Kara nodded her understanding, neither of them enjoyed this, and Cat’s words from almost three months ago rang in her ears:

_“We keep things professional, nobody gets confused, nobody gets hurt.”_

Look how well that’d turned out.

Cat looked like she wanted to say something now but Kara shook her head. She didn’t want to be reassured, didn’t want the false promises that had gotten them here in the first place. Instead Cat just held a little tighter to her wrist before letting go, their fingers brushing as Kara’s hand fell back to her side.

The moment had passed and Cat turned, hitting the emergency stop once more and letting them continue their path.

As they walked side by side to the converted office, Kara could feel her dread growing like a criminal on the way to the guillotine. She wondered, as she took her seat if that made Cat the executioner.

///

They took their usual seats, Kara wrapping her arms around a colorful throw pillow and Cat trying her hardest to not think about a couple’s therapy session much like this one that had put the proverbial nail in her marriage’s coffin nearly nine years ago.

Even Jake looked unsure and Cat wondered for the first time if maybe she put too much pressure on him to come here and fix this for her, but before she can dwell too long, his look of unease disappears and he starts in on his expectations for today’s session.

It’s all very normal at first, he recaps the usual ground rules, don’t interrupt, be respectful, blah, blah, blah.

Then he turns thoughtful, attempting a reassuring smile and mostly succeeding, “This won’t be an easy session, and you may not like what the other has to say, but I promise, I wouldn’t be having you do this if I didn’t think it would ultimately help your relationship.

“That being said, I have high expectations of both of you today. Remember that this is a space where you are to speak openly and honestly without the fear of ridicule. I don’t want you to be thinking of this exercise as a fight against each other but rather an opportunity to share freely and cooperate to find a solution to the problems that are weighing you down and to take accountability for your own mistakes.

“My role today will be to mediate; I’ll step in if I feel it necessary but otherwise it will be up to the two of you to lead the discussion.” He stops a minute to make sure they’re all on the same page.

“Okay.” He says after a few moments, gesturing toward them, making it clear they had the stage.

Silence engulfed the room, and for a few moments all Cat could hear was her watch, she was about to say something when Kara spoke instead, the sound of her voice almost as jarring a surprise as Silver Banshee’s screams had been before all of this began.

“Things have been different between us for a while now.” Kara said, trying to ease into this conversation as much as possible.

“Yes.” Cat agreed.

“These past few months have been…hard?” Kara kept going, looking every ounce of uncomfortable as she felt.

“Yes.” Cat agreed again, trying to make her voice soft and encouraging.

“And – I don’t- this is so messed up.” She shook her head and looked at Jake, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to say here.”

“You’re not _supposed_ to say anything.” He told her, “You’re here because parts of your relationship aren’t working, all I want to know is why you think that is. If you don’t acknowledge the mistakes that have been made, then there’s a good chance they’ll be repeated.”

“I just don’t want…” Kara trailed off, she could feel her frustration growing, not able to say what she really wanted to. She had to stop herself from tearing apart the throw pillow in her hands.

“What?” Jake pushed, “What don’t you want?”

“I don’t want to be punished again for doing the wrong thing.” She relented, tossing the pillow aside haphazardly.

“You think I punished you?” Cat asked, she didn’t look mad, just curious.

“What would you call it?” Kara asked rhetorically, there was an edge to her voice, a hardness that Cat wasn’t used to. “I mess up and you impose a penalty, first Adam and then Siobhan, that’s almost a textbook definition of a punishment.”

“Admittedly, Siobhan was a mistake.” Cat acquiesced, completely ignoring mention of her son. “I still have a slight ringing in my ears”

“What if you didn’t?” Kara asked.

“Then I wouldn’t have had you schedule that appointment with my ENT.” Cat replied, pretending like she didn’t understand what Kara was really asking.

“No, I mean, what if she had been good? What if she hadn’t tried to sell that story to The Daily Planet, no trickery, no screaming people out of windows,” Kara corrected, Jake looked intrigued but didn’t ask, “would I still be ‘Assistant Number Two’?”

Cat didn’t answer her right away, the truth was she wasn’t sure. Siobhan had annoyed her before she’d gone all _Fatal Attraction_ , even when she was doing exactly what Cat asked, she was so decidedly Not-Kara that it pissed Cat off. Chances were she would have eventually given her an impossible task as an excuse to fire her or moved her to another department.

Cat was about to open her mouth to say just that when Kara continued.

“And then there’s your decision to keep things professional between us.” She said, this time she didn’t explicitly name Adam but his name hung heavy around them nonetheless.

“I told you, that was so nobody got hurt.” Cat explained.

“Well, I’m already hurt!” Kara all but yelled, jumping out of her seat and turning to face Cat, for a few moments they just looked at each other, Cat biting her lip to keep from retaliating and Kara, with her chest heaving, trying to catch her breath.

After a moment, Jake intervened. “Kara, take a breath and calm down, remember this isn’t a fight.” He held his hand up and mimicked the deep breathing exercises that Cat’s personal therapist was so fond of.

Kara ignored him, swiping a hand across her face instead, mindful of her glasses. She paced for a moment or two before returning to her seat, defeated.

“I think the worst part is that you make all of these decisions without even giving me a chance to explain, and I get that you’re the boss, but after everything we’ve been through, after two years of loyalty, don’t I at least deserve that?”

“Why would I ask you to explain when anything you’d say would be a lie?” Cat threw back.

Kara felt like the breath was knocked out of her. It was the clearest insinuation that she was Supergirl that Cat had thrown out yet, and she took it for what it was, a challenge. One she surely couldn’t rise to now.

Nearly five minutes ticked by, the two of them watching each other but she wasn’t sure how to respond, this wasn’t really something they could talk about in front of Jake, what Cat was hinting at went a little beyond Doctor-Patient Confidentiality.

Finally, Cat spoke again, “For nearly six months, you’ve been purposefully keeping things from me, even when I confronted you; you want your chance to explain, well here it is, tell me the truth.”

Kara just looked at her, knowing she couldn’t, maybe even if Jake weren’t there. As the moment slipped away she could almost feel the rope burns on her own hands, as the blade came down. Maybe she’d been her own executioner all along.

///

Kara was granted a slight reprieve when Cat was called away on business in Opal City. They’d both recognized that perhaps having Kara accompany her for this particular trip may be a bit ill-mannered, especially with the state they were in at the moment, Cat thought a little distance might even do them some good.

Despite the fact that Kara could barely look her in the eye at the moment, Cat made sure to leave clear instructions for James to split responsibilities with her for the three days she’d be gone, still impressed with the way Kara had proven herself all those weeks ago. She hoped the action would gain some ground with the girl.

The rest of the week following their session had been tense. Jake had tried his best to smooth things out before they left on Tuesday but there was only so much he could do in the fifteen minutes they’d had left after Cat had finally finished with her own list of grievances.

He’d been understanding when she called Friday night to let him know about her upcoming trip, happily assuring her they’d pick up where they left off the following Tuesday, and telling her to enjoy the chance to see her son. Cat wouldn’t lie and say she wasn’t excited for that as well, with everything else that’d been happening, having the chance to sneak a dinner or two in with her oldest was a ray of light on the horizon.

She was just exiting her gate, still a little frustrated that she’d been forced to fly commercial, the trip coming up too late for her pilot to file flight plans, her eyes scanning the area near the baggage claim for her driver when they spotted a familiar face.

He hadn’t noticed her yet, bouncing in place a little, seemingly entranced by the baggage carousel. She took a minute to study him. He was wearing jeans and a tee with a light unzipped sweatshirt, sleeves pulled up almost to his elbows. His hair looked like it’d recently been brushed but there was a small spot on the crown of his head where a few strands stuck up, and she remembered the cowlick there that’d always given her such a hard time when he was a baby. He was holding a small sign in his hands that read “Mom” in decorative block letters.

Apparently, whatever caught his attention had passed as he looked up and locked on to her almost immediately, a bright smile coming to his face as he gave her an excited wave. She could feel her heart bursting open, and really this is just what she needed.

///

Jake Casey was standing inside Noonan’s looking up at the menu above the counter. He’d gotten halfway to CatCo before remembering that Cat was out of town this week and decided to take the hour and half that he usually set aside for their session to grab a coffee and reread his notes on another case.

“Talk to Sammy, she has this weird ability to look at you and know what you want.” A voice behind him suggested.

He turned to see a short woman with brown hair that totally gave him the impression that she could kick his ass if she wanted to despite the bright smile on her face.

“Sammy?” He asked, flashing her a smile back.

“The owner.” She answered, coming closer to the counter and waving the woman down, who made her way over with a smile. “Hey Sammy, my friend…” She looked over her shoulder at him.

“Jake.” He supplied.

“ _Jake_ , my friend Jake can’t decide what he wants.” She turned back to the woman in front of her.

Sammy took a minute to look him over, “Flat white with a touch of hazelnut.” She declared after a minute.

“Add my usual to that?” She asked politely, handing her card to the woman behind the counter.

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that.” Jake stepped forward, reaching for his own wallet.

“Consider it my treat, Jake.” She told him, drawing his name out in a curious way.

“Well, thank you…”

“Lucy.”

“Thank you, Lucy.” When she continued to watch him, he continued. “I’m sorry, do we know each other?”

“Your last name wouldn’t happen to be Casey, would it?” She asked.

His eyebrows crinkled, “Are you like psychic?” He asked in a hushed voice, “’cause if you are, I’m sorry for what I was thinking earlier. I’ve heard there are some gifted individuals here, but I’ve never met a psychic before, although my Aunt Rosa used to tell people that she could predict their futures based on the aura of their social security number. How she didn’t predict herself going to prison…” He rambled nervously.

“I’m not psychic,” Lucy interrupted with a laugh, “although now I’m curious about what you were thinking earlier.”

“That you could kick my ass if you wanted?” He was beaming that bashful smile at her that Kara was always going on about.

Lucy laughed again, “I’d actually take that as a compliment.” Before she had a chance to say anything more, Sammy was calling out their order.

“So, if you’re not psychic, how did you know my name?” He asked as they walked around the counter to pick up their coffee.

“I’m friends with Cat and Kara,” she told him, “and I figured, this close to CatCo on a Tuesday…plus you look just like Kara described.”

“She’s mentioned me?” He asked, he was under the impression that this whole thing was top secret, red level clearance only.

“Mentioned…complained in great detail.” Lucy gestured with her free hand.

To his credit, he laughed, “That does seem to be one of the hazards of my job.”

“And especially with these two.” She added.

He smiled politely, “I’m sorry, I can’t really…” He waved his hands between them, careful not to spill his coffee.

“No, of course!” Lucy exclaimed, “Privilege, I understand, I’m an attorney.”

“Right, so you get it.” He said with a nod, dimples now back.

“Of course, they’re your clients.” She agreed. “Although, if _I_ were to talk about my two _friends_ , maybe give you some theories, some insight, into their relationship, that wouldn’t be breaking privilege.” She pointed out.

“No, I suppose it wouldn’t.” He agreed hesitantly.

“Let’s take a seat, Jake.”

///

Cat took in her son’s apartment, it was much nicer than what most boys his age could manage, which she’d already known given the very exclusive and discreet private investigator she’d had on retainer to keep an eye on her oldest from afar before Kara had sent that letter.

She _was_ slightly surprised with how tastefully it was decorated. She’d been expecting bare walls and a few Ikea futons, maybe a gaming system or two. Instead, she felt like she’d walked into a Pottery Barn, he had a coffee colored leather couch, and a single armchair centered around a coffee table made of reclaimed wood; like her, he seemed partial to natural lighting, with a set of skylights which left the last dregs of sunlight shining into the space; he had a few pieces of artwork hanging on his walls intermingling with his own photographs, a few of whom she assumed were his friends, one or two where she recognized his father, but perhaps what surprised her most was the single picture on top of his entertainment center which featured she and Carter from a visit Adam had made a few weeks back.

She was caught up in the picture, smiling at the sight of her father’s nose on both her sons’ faces, when she heard footsteps behind her.

“Alright, so I know takeout’s not really your thing but trust me, it’s way better than anything I could have come up with.” He said, setting two paper bags down on the coffee table.

She just waved him away, moving to take a seat on the end of couch. “Nonsense, I once spent three days eating nothing but beetles and fauna when I hiked the Inca Trail.”

 He laughed lightly, “I’m glad I can beat out bugs and leafs.” Now that they were actually getting to know each other, his mother’s tendency to drop bits of information like this was more intriguing than aggravating.

They sat and chatted while they ate, catching up on the last few weeks, Adam showing her some of his sketches for a conceptualized spaceship he and Carter had decided to build together after their trip to the science museum, when he’d visited a few weeks ago. They were very different, her boys, Adam who grew up building cars with his dad and Carter who could recite the entirety of the periodic table before his fifth birthday, it was nice that they’d been able to find some common ground to bond over.

“I don’t think it’ll be too hard to tweak a small cordless motor to fit here,” he was pointing to the sketch, “and C said he can write a program to make it Bluetooth compatible.” He was explaining, Carter had excitedly told her much the same thing two nights ago after skyping with his brother.

“It’s wonderful.” She praised.

“Yeah, well, it’s coming along.” Adam flushed, folding the sheet back up, not yet used to his mother’s uninhibited pride.

Before she had the chance to respond, she felt her phone buzz in her lap, looking down she couldn’t help the slight scowl that came to her face.

“Everything okay?” Adam asked.

“Oh, yes, yes, just my art director checking in.” She replied absentmindedly as she typed out a quick response to James.

“Let me guess, everything is falling apart without you?” He half joked, but wondered by the look on her face if it were true.

“Actually, quite the opposite.” She responded, setting her phone down with a heavy sigh.

“Were you hoping they’d fail?” He asked curiously but with a joking lilt, unsure why she was so downtrodden by the news that things were going well.

The truth was she was disappointed that the update had come from James and not Kara. She had hoped that giving Kara more responsibility while she was gone would be something of a truce, things had been heavy between them all week and even though she meant what she said about Kara lying to her, she hadn’t intended for them to end up in such a state.

She didn’t say that to her son though, not wanting to bring her assistant up to him, instead she plastered on a conspiratorial smile and said, “Can’t have them planning a coup if they realize their own ability to succeed without me at the helm.”

He just smiled, knowing it wasn’t true, they may be able to manage a few days, but during his time in National City, it became clear to him how important his mom really was.

“Speaking of CatCo,” he started, “how’s Kara?” He asked, wincing at his own poor attempt at a segue.

She sighed, having been hoping to avoid this particular subject, she picked up her glass and took a sip of water to give her time to formulate a response.

“It’s just that Carter mentioned that he hadn’t seen her in a while and I wanted to make sure everything was okay with you two.” He hastened to add when he noticed her discomfort.

“Oh.” She replied, as she set her cup down. “Everything is fine.” She assured him.

“Mom.” He said in a warning voice, clearly not buying it, and she almost had to laugh at how much like his brother he sounded. When she still hesitated, he sighed and added, “Really, we can talk about this. I mean, she and I only had two dates, both of which fell apart half-way through, plus I’m seeing somebody new now, and I think it’s all for the best, long-distance is hard.”

“Long-distance?”

“Yeah, well we could barely manage a functional dinner in the same city, maintaining a relationship after I’d come back here would have been a complete disaster.” He said like it was obvious.

“You would have come back here?” She asked.

“Well, yeah. I mean, don’t get me wrong, National City is great but it’s a little big for me, and I kind of love it here. Why?”

“I just assumed, after you’d extended your stay to see Kara, that you were considering staying.”

“I didn’t extend my stay to see Kara.” He replied confused.

“You didn’t?”

“No, I wanted to get to know _you_ , being able to see Kara was just a nice coincidence of that.”

“Oh.” She replied, suddenly realizing she’d been wrongly using son to justify her actions.

“And even if I had stayed, I don’t think it would have worked out.” He kept going. “I was a little enamored because of what she did for me, for us, but it was pretty clear she had someone else on her mind.”

“James Olsen.” Cat responded knowingly.

Adam laughed, “Definitely not James Olsen.” He told her but didn’t elaborate further.

Their conversation drifted from there, but as she stood up to leave, he tugged on her elbow to get her attention.

“For what it’s worth, I hope you can work out whatever’s going on between you and Kara, you guys are good together, you know, in whatever capacity that ends up being.”

She didn’t ask him what he meant, but instead pulled him in for a hug before turning and opening his front door, promising to show him how to cook a decent meal the following evening before she had to return home.

///

Kara sat on the couch in Cat’s office that faced the balcony, it was approaching nine but she couldn’t bring herself to leave despite sending James home three hours earlier. She looked around the empty space and wished, not for the first time that day, that Cat weren’t in Opal City. She didn’t even know why; it wasn’t like they were talking right now anyway. In fact, she’d done her best to avoid any unnecessary contact with Cat for the past week, grateful when James didn’t question her request that he be the one to send Cat updates.

Maybe she was just lonely, it’d been a busy day, and she realized why Cat leaned on her so heavily at times. It had been one thing to take over for Cat a few weeks ago on a slow day when the woman herself was still there, but today was different. She had to do her job and Cat’s and James had been helpful but there were just parts of the job that he didn’t understand since he didn’t deal with it every day, she wondered how he’d managed it on his own when Cat had been in Metropolis last year. She suddenly understood Cat’s need to yell at Derek every morning.

She reached forward to grab the cup of M&Ms that sat next to a still full glass of bourbon that she’d poured on instinct before realizing there was nobody there to drink it.

Her fingers itched, and for at least the tenth time, in the last hour, she considered typing out a text to her boss. She popped a few M&Ms in her mouth and set the cup beside her on the couch, careful not to spill it, sure that Cat wouldn’t appreciate finding her favorite treat under the cushions.

With her hands free she picked up her phone, swiping at her screen until her message log with Cat came up. For a few minutes, she just read through their previous exchanges, mostly about work, and none recently, there was one hidden toward the top, first, a picture of Max Lord at some benefit, picking a wedgie, completely unaware that anybody was watching him, right after Cat had sent a caption “He’s looking for his head.” She remembered when she received it, in the middle of Netflix-Night with Alex, she immediately shoved her phone in front of her sister’s face and the two dissolved into a fit of giggles resulting in their having to rewind back nearly fifteen minutes into their episode of Jane the Virgin.

 There were a few more similar texts, most of them from months earlier, _“Kiera, I saw a toddler wearing a sweater set identical to yours at Gjelina today; I almost asked her for layouts.”, “Remind me to sit next to Aisha the next time I’m at The Talk, I can practically feel the chemicals from Osbourne’s hair dye sinking into my skin.”, “Hi Kara! Did you see the newest trailer for Ghost Busters??? –Carter.”_

As she scrolled back down, she realized how few and far between they’d become, it wasn’t something she’d realized she’d missed until now, and it only served to make her more frustrated about the current state of their relationship.

She wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t have a doubt now that Cat had once again discovered the other half of her identity, what she’d said in their session went far beyond the teasing barbs that hinted at the truth, no, what Cat said was a clear callout, and she didn’t know how she should handle it.

On one hand she wanted to just tell the truth, it was clear by now that Cat didn’t intend to use the information for any gain, and considering how much time they were putting into this whole therapy thing, she was somewhat reassured that her job would still be available to her, if she confirmed the truth.

She was even pretty sure she could get Alex and Hank on board, both of them warming to Cat more after she’d written a positive and encouraging expose about the mysterious green alien that had saved the city during Supergirl’s meltdown, which had in part paved the way for both of their safe return to the DEO, as public outcry putting pressure on agencies who’d issued warrants for them.

There was still something holding her back though, and a part of her cursed herself for toying with the idea of talking to Jake about it. Not in so many words of course, but maybe if she could find a way to frame it so it wouldn’t compromise her identity. She shook her head, dismissing the idea for now, still annoyed with him and his stupid face and his stupid dimples and his especially stupid therapy exercises that kept making things worse.

Her fingers hovered over the textbox on her phone again. She typed out a quick message.

_I saw you checked into your hotel, I was sure to request a new set of sheets for your bed. Let me know if you need anything else and I’ll make the calls._

There, professional and to the point…and she hated it. She quickly erased it and started again.

_The concierge will have a latte waiting for you in the morning._

Nope.

_I almost fired Derek again today, luckily James stopped me. Seriously, what’s wrong with that guy._

It might get a laugh but it wasn’t right.

_I checked with your doorman, Carter got home safe. I had dinner from Orlando’s sent for he and Ella, plenty of greens, I promise._

Cat already knew all of that, Carter would have told her during their nightly call, and it might just come off as grandstanding.

             _How’s Adam?_

She almost cracked her screen in her attempt to erase that one.

             _I miss you. Get home safe._

The words hung on her screen for several minutes as she looked at them, cursor blinking at her, willing her to make a decision. The words were true she realized as she looked at them. She did miss Cat, and not just because they’d gone a day without seeing each other. She’d been missing Cat for the last week since she’d demanded the truth from her. She’d missed Cat since the minute Adam’s feet hit CatCo’s lobby on his way back to Opal City.

There was part of her that cursed the secret she kept for getting in the way of such a good thing, she wondered if things would be different if she’d never put on the cape. The thought lasted for half a second, knowing that she’d never trade it for anything. She loved being Supergirl, even if it did cause problems with her interpersonal relationships at times. She just wished she could find a better balance.

She reread the words one more time before hitting the backspace again.

With a frustrated sigh, she tossed her phone aside, the cursor still blinking from where it sat ready. She reached over and downed the scotch that still sat on the table, now slightly too warm, and even if it did nothing for her, it made her feel connected to her boss again, and that alone was worth the burn it left down her throat.

She looked around the office once more, deciding she’d done enough for the day. She stood up, grabbing the cup of M&Ms that still sat on the couch, throwing what was left of those back as well, putting the two glasses she’d used in the sink behind the bar to be washed in the morning.

She decided to just leave her tablet and the rest of the paperwork she’d been reading through on Cat’s desk for the next day.

With one more glance around, she did a quick change into her suit, and reached for her phone, quickly flipping it back to her main screen before turning the screen off and shoving it in her boot, ready to head for home.

///

Cat laid in the middle of the king size bed, running her fingers over the brand new sheets Kara had remembered to procure for her, the same ones she had at home. It always made her feel better when she traveled. Not many people knew it about her but she was a bit of a homebody. She loved to travel, but there was part of her that craved the normalcy of her own routine, especially after Carter had been born, she could practically feel the string that connected her heart to his being tugged on, the further she went from him. But these little pieces of home helped lessen some of that anxiety, and she was grateful that Kara never forgot to procure them for her.

She’d climbed in bed almost immediately after returning from Adam’s, only stopping to take a quick shower to get the plane smell off of her.

He’d regretfully apologized for not having a guest bedroom, the only spare room he did have was being used as a makeshift office. She waved him off, her meetings tomorrow were in a rented office space across the street from her hotel anyway, and she jokingly mentioned that Kara would panic if she didn’t receive the email notification about her checking into her hotel; although she knew from personal experience that it was true. She’d once gone for a late dinner after arriving in Vegas for a conference, and by the time she checked into her hotel at one am, Kara had called half the hospitals in the city looking for her.

She let out a frustrated sigh as she turned on her side to look at the clock. It was only ten past nine but she knew the early time wasn’t the reason she was having trouble sleeping.

She couldn’t stop thinking about what Adam had said, couldn’t stop thinking about the way she had treated her assistant after he had left National City, insisting that they remain professional.

Was that really what she wanted?

Even now that she knew that her son would have returned to Opal City regardless, she couldn’t help but wonder if she still would have made a similar request.

She didn’t really do personal relationships, at least not in earnest since divorcing Carter’s father. She had “friends”, but those were people like Kate Middleton and Cher. Celebrities that you never really formed a close bond with because you were both too busy to manage it, a call here and there, a plug for their new project when it came around. She did actually play in Ellen’s poker league but even that was more of a competitive stress release.

There was just something about Kara. She liked the way she felt when she was with her, sharing her wisdom about being a professional woman in power or when they’d set their work aside and joke about Carter overthrowing Maxwell Lord someday, it was nice, and honestly, she missed it.

She felt that same frustration bubble up in her that she’d experienced every time she saw James’s name flash on her screen today, it made her want to fire somebody. But in a darkened hotel room that wasn’t really an option unless she felt like putting real clothes back on and storming down to the lobby, which she didn’t.

Instead she reached for her phone, swiping the screen. For a minute or two she scrolled through her photos, letting the sight of her son’s face calm her, he was growing up so fast, soon he’d be as tall as his brother. She couldn’t wait for tomorrow to be over so she could wrap him up in a big hug where she’d be able to press her nose to his curls and smell the children’s shampoo she still bought for him.

As she reached the end of her photo stream, she exited out of it and opened her messages. There wasn’t anything new, but on a whim she clicked on Kara’s name, a part of her hoping there’d be something waiting for her that she’d missed. There wasn’t, but instead she saw that flashing icon that she usually despised.

_Kara is typing…_

_Kara is typing…_

_Kara is typing…_

It flashed over and over for nearly ten minutes, sometimes disappearing, only to reappear seconds later, taunting her, she briefly considered typing out her own response.

_Get on with it Kiera._

But finally her screen went blank again, save for their previous messages, and she decided if Kara didn’t have the guts to start this conversation then she wouldn’t either. With frustration, she slammed her phone back down on her bedside table, rolling back only seconds later to make sure it was plugged in so Carter could reach her if he needed to.

She tossed and turned most of the night, her meetings the next day were tedious and she almost yelled out for Kara to bring her some aspirin before remembering the girl was still in National City.

The early dinner she had with her son before returning to the airport cheered her up a little, happy to know he was better in the kitchen than he’d made her believe the night before.

As she boarded her plane, she hoped that two days apart had been enough to let the dust between her and Kara settle.

///

Stepping off the plane nearly six hours later, Cat resisted the groan that threatened to leave her mouth as everything popped back into place, flying commercial really sucked.

She quickly turned her phone back on to see that it was nearly three in the morning. She was glad that it was a Saturday, at least she could sleep in, she’d probably drag Carter with her to the office where they could both work for a few hours, but that could wait until after lunch.

She came out of her gate, glad she hadn’t checked any bags for such a short trip, making due with only her carry-ons. She started to head toward the exit, knowing her driver would have the car pulled up to the curb, waiting for her.

She was just skimming through a few emails as she made her way down when she bumped into somebody, she looked up to apologize, not having been expecting many people to be around this late when she stopped.

“Kara?” She asked, surprised. Before her stood her assistant, in jeans and a baggy sweatshirt, her hair pulled back into a ponytail that was just slightly messier than the one she wore at work.

“Miss Grant.” Kara greeted her, trying to keep her voice light and failing, as she reached up to adjust her glasses nervously.

“What are you doing here?” Cat asked. “I was under the impression that you had a more efficient means of travel.”

“No-I-I’m not going anywhere.” She stuttered out. “I just-I wanted to make sure you got home safely, I guess.” She said softly.

Cat couldn’t help the small smile at the admission, and the lack of denial. “Well then, let’s get going.” Cat replied, gesturing for Kara to start walking with her.

Together they made their way to Cat’s waiting car, David holding the back door open for them both. They enjoyed the ride in silence until pulling up to Cat’s building.

“David will drive you home.” Cat said finally as the man in question rounded the car to open the door for her and help her with her bags.

Kara just nodded.

For a moment the two just looked at each other, neither really sure what to say next. After a week and a half of what mostly consisted of radio static, the sudden shift was a little discombobulating for them both.

Finally, as David came back around, Kara broke the silence.

“Goodnight, Miss Grant.”

“Goodnight, Kara.” Cat spoke softly, watching as Kara climbed back into the car. Hopeful as she walked into her building that this was a real start to fix whatever was broken between them.

///

“And that was three days ago.” Kara said to the group as she finished telling them about the last few weeks. “Today things finally felt normal again, but our next session is tomorrow and I’m just worried we’re going to lose this progress all over again.”

“You should go early and talk to Jake.” Lucy said a little too quickly.

The others turned to look at her curiously.

“What? I’m just saying, he’s there for a reason and it sounds like you’re starting to make a breakthrough here, and Cat’s paying him a crazy amount of money to make this work so let him help, and maybe it’ll help you be less annoyed with him too.” She reasoned.

Kara didn’t look all that convinced. “Really?” She looked to her sister and aunt, wanting their input as well.

Alex looked like she was trying to put a double-sided puzzle together, but after a moment she spoke. “There was a reason you liked him at the beginning, and it had to be more than just the fact that he criticized Cat more than you, he sounds like he genuinely is a good person and just because he doesn’t always tell you what you want to hear doesn’t mean he isn’t good at his job, you said yourself that there might be some truth in what he said. I think Lucy is right to give him another chance.”

Astra nodded, it was very sound logic.

Kara finally turned to Vasquez, always the voice of reason, “Susan?”

“I think they’re right, and if you really hate what he has to say, I’m sure we can come up with a Supergirl emergency for you.”

Kara thought about it, as they made their way out of the training room, she could feel her powers flood her system again, giving her the extra courage she needed to pull out her phone and send Jake a text asking to meet early tomorrow.

His response was almost immediate, she slid her phone back into her boot. She gave Alex and Astra each a hug, waving to Lucy and Vasquez who were now on the other side of the room before heading toward the exit, deciding that she’d earned potstickers for dinner.

Whatever happened tomorrow, she just hoped it wouldn’t destroy the fragile start her and Cat seemed to be making.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? I know there were less Astra interludes than in the last chapter but I couldn't find many places where it felt natural, especially since so much of it was from Cat's POV. Anywho, thanks for reading!!!


	3. Week 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for Season Two!

“Remind me again why this matter cannot be handled by Agent Danvers and yourself.” Astra demanded as she followed Lucy into the restaurant.

“You know why.” Lucy responded with an eye roll, this whole thing had been like pulling teeth. “Alex and I are badasses sure, and I have no doubt that we could swing this in our favor eventually, but you and J’onn have unique knowledge that we don’t, you can speak from your own experiences, that will have sway.”

“In a room full of old white men, including one who raised you and tortured me, I have trouble reaching the same conclusion.” Astra pointed out without any harshness.

Lucy sighed regardless wishing for the umpteenth time that Astra could be as agreeable as her niece. “Let’s just shelf this discussion for now okay? We’re here to take a break, if my count is right, you still have about three thousand calories to fit into your diet for the day and I’m buying.”

Astra relented and followed Lucy to the counter to place their order, only turning when she could feel somebody watching her. Her eyes landed on a blonde woman a few booths away that was studying her in a way that was unnerving.

Lucy, who’d been trying to get Astra’s attention to ask about desert finally spun around to shake her, finding the woman entranced, she followed her gaze and sighed, quickly turning to finish their order and pay before dragging Astra along to the booth.

“Cat.” Lucy greeted pleasantly. “Are you eating alone?” She asked, it didn’t really seem like the other woman’s style.

“Baby Lane.” Cat returned, eyes raking over Astra one last time before turning to Lucy. “Kara and I were having a quick dinner before she got pulled away.” She said dismissively. “I have to say, I find it quite interesting that you’re dining with the woman who only a few months ago had a very public blow out with Supergirl.”

Lucy immediately dropped down into the seat across from Cat, hoping to keep the conversation from prying ears.

“She took my lunch from the staff lounge and ate it, despite my name being very clearly written on top.” Astra provided, sitting next to Lucy leisurely, not caring who heard. She appraised the woman in front of her, thinking back to everything Kara had said over the past several weeks, pointedly ignoring Lucy’s glare.

“You expect me to believe that Supergirl caused over a million dollars in structural damage to the city over a sandwich?” Cat asked.

“What can I say, unlike in the private sector, the government can’t afford to hire a couple’s therapist for office disputes.” Lucy replied smoothly, hoping to distract Cat from perusing the issue further.

It seemed to work, Cat bristled. “Careful Lucy, or you may just learn exactly what it means to be my most disliked Lane.” Cat warned, voice sickly sweet.

“Hey, no judgment here,” she held up her hands defensively, “I personally think it’s a brilliant idea.”

Cat just scoffed.

“No, really,” Lucy continued, eyes twinkling, knowing her plan was working, “I have to say, I’m excited to hear how things have been going since your trip to Opal City.”

Cat’s face turned to stone, and Lucy silently apologized to Kara for throwing her under the bus like this. “She tells you about our sessions?”

“Not completely, but enough, it helps her process.” Lucy said. “But I haven’t talked to her yet this week,” It was a lie, but Kara keeping this week’s session to herself at the moment, “she promised to fill me in tomorrow.” Another lie.

Cat’s impulse to control the narrative got the better of her, with one last uncertain glance at Astra, she started, keeping her voice nonchalant, “Well, it truly wasn’t anything all that interesting…”

///

Jake Casey sat in what had become his makeshift office at CatCo, it was a little nicer than his own office on the other side of the city, the one that still had unpacked boxes full of files on his clients back east in the cramped storage closet that he’d inititally intended to hide office supplies and a mini fridge in.

He’d been in National City for nearly a year now but his heart still beat in time to the crack of ball and bat echoing at Fenway. It was probably why he’d spent his first week in the city getting his cable package set up to ensure he’d never miss a Sox or Celtics game, instead of getting his space organized like he’d planned.

Even though the office he was currently in was nicer, he missed his own space, despite only having left it thirty minutes earlier, there was something about the cluttered familiarity that helped him clear his head; not that it’d been all that helpful this past week. Ever since he’d met Lucy Lane, he’d been having something of a moral dilemma, wondering about the ethics of their impromptu meeting.

He’d been honest with her when he said he couldn’t discuss his clients with her, and he hadn’t, but he did indulge her request to share her own insight, which may have been just as bad.

He could try to justify it; technically, he and Cat did have a relationship outside of their current circumstances. His conversation with Lucy could be framed as a mostly one-sided discussion about a mutual friend. Or, and this was a little iffier, he could look at it as a friends and family survey meant to shed light on aspects of the couple’s relationship that they weren’t willing or able to share themselves. Third parties often had a way of picking apart a relationship in a manner that was vastly different than those who were in the relationship. It wasn’t a technique he used regularly, since most family and friends tended to be bias toward one half of the couple, but there were instances where an unbiased voice could be helpful; of course in the past, he’d always had the couple’s consent. On top of it all, his brain kept reminding him that it wasn’t strictly illegal, but as someone who’d grown up watching most of the people around him do bad things that weren’t strictly illegal, that was perhaps the least comforting.

He hadn’t been surprised by what Lucy had told him about Cat and Kara, he’d begun to pick up some of their nuances himself. This would all be so much easier if they were a _couple_ like all of his other couples.

The truth was, being a couple’s therapist could be a huge pain in the ass. Occasionally, he’d get the odd couple that was pretty happy but wanted to dust off some of the more neglected parts of their relationship to keep things from getting rusty, but that was rare. More often than not, he’d get couples who were ready to separate or divorce and he was seen as a last ditch effort, the thing that stood between them and litigation.  It was tough, but it was clear, there was a point to what he was doing, there were boundaries and expectations.

With Cat and Kara it was a blur. When Cat contacted him, it was all about professional development and efficiency. She’d made it sound like Kara was great at her job but personality clashes were preventing a cohesive work environment. He hadn’t expected the two to have such a rich personal history.

They were more like his usual couples than they gave themselves credit for, and if he could only work from that premise, he’d probably have a chance here. Unfortunately, and with great disappointment to Lucy Lane, his role as a couple’s therapist and that of a matchmaker are very different.

At the end of the day, he could only hope that by giving them the basic tools that all relationships needed, they’d be able to build something worth hanging on to, professional, platonic, or otherwise.

///

Kara made her way down to thirty-eight, forty minutes before her and Cat’s session was scheduled to start. She knew that Cat had caught her sneaking away from her desk, but she pointedly ignored the suspicious gaze being sent her way and continued toward the stairs, hoping to work out the anxious energy that was making her arms feel both jittery and heavy. She supposed that she almost preferred Cat thinking she was off on Official Supergirl Business™, then knowing the truth, that she was seeing their shrink for a solo session where she’d ask him for his advice on sharing her not-so-secret (at least to Cat) identity with her boss.

 

Cat would probably think her ridiculous for it. As far as she was concerned, she knew the truth so there was no point in Kara’s firm denial of it anymore; for somebody so complex, she could be such a dichotomous thinker at times. Not that she was necessarily wrong here, Kara wasn’t sure how much longer she could convince herself that her insistence on such secrecy was so that Cat could have plausible deniability. There was still something that was holding her back, and she felt like she was on the verge of figuring it out, maybe Lucy was right that Jake could help, even if it made her feel like she was going behind Cat’s back to do it.

 

She didn’t have time to dwell on it much longer as her feet hit the landing and she pushed her way through the door onto thirty-eight, perhaps a little too roughly if the small cloud of plaster dust was anything to go by. She didn’t pay it much attention though, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d have to patch a wall after hours.

 

She turned the corner and started walking toward the converted office. She could already hear Jake tapping his foot and clicking his pen, distracting her from her own nerves to wonder what was causing his.

 

She gave a quick knock, not waiting for a response before pushing into the room.

 

“Kara!” Jake said, a little too enthusiastically.

 

“Hi.” She said, her own voice softer, as she questioned for the millionth time whether this was a good idea. 

Jake briefly considered asking about her week, but one look told him that small-talk wasn’t the place to start today. “I’m glad you called.” He said instead, reaching to take the phone she was holding out to him and dropping it in the basket that sat under his chair. “Why don’t you take a seat and tell me what you wanted to talk about.”

Kara blew out a breath that made the few wisps of hair not caught in her ponytail flutter. “Cat was right.” She started as she let herself fall back onto the couch, already resigned. “At our last session. When she said that I’ve been lying to her, she was right.” She jumped right into it.

Jake continued to watch her, slightly surprised. He’d still been trying to make sense of their last session, trying to decode their interactions since most of what they’d said was shrouded in misnomers. He was about to ask her to expand on her admission when she started to speak again.

“I’m afraid she thinks that I don’t trust her, but that’s not what this is about.” She told him, looking up at the ceiling above her as she spoke, missing the furrow of his brows.

“Why don’t we start at the beginning, what is it that Cat thinks you’ve been lying about?” He asked.

She turned her head and looked out the window, considering her words carefully, not wanting to give too much away.

He took her pause as hesitation and was quick to reassure her. “You don’t have to tell me,” He conceded, trying to tread lightly, “but anything you say here, stays here. It won’t get back to Cat or anybody else, unless you want it to.”

“I’m adopted.” She said suddenly, wincing at her own volume, “I don’t know if Cat told you that or not.” She said, steadying her voice. “But, um, my life was very different before my parents died, like um, culturally you know?”

He nodded, making an effort to relax his face and his posture.

 

“Right.” She continued when she knew he was tracking her. “Who I was then, and who I am now because of them, it’s different,” She repeated, “and it’s something that I don’t talk about, you know, my sister, my best friends…but Cat-” she cut herself off with a sigh.

 

Jake gave her space to collect her thoughts, not wanting to interject and throw off her train of thought.

 

“She wants to know. She’s interested in that part of me, she confronted me about it before, and I wasn’t expecting it so I lied – I misled her. I don’t know why, but I didn’t want to share that side of me with her. And then she decided things between us should be strictly professional, and I think…” She trailed off, not bothering to finish her thought out loud, “And now, she’s hinting at it again, that she’s intrigued, that she wants to know more, and I can’t figure out why I’m holding back. After everything we’ve been through in the last few months, the fact that she wants to know more about me…” She trailed off again.

 

She knew that she was probably making it sound like she’d had some kind of horribly traumatic childhood, which truthfully, she kind of had, but probably not in the way Jake was thinking. But she couldn’t risk getting too close to the truth and exposing herself to him accidentally.

 

Lucy had jokingly, or not so jokingly, suggested she frame the conversation as though she had some kind of secret sex kink that Cat had shown an interest in, to which Kara had blushed a bright red while falling over herself to shoot Lucy down while also downing half a bottle of water in one embarrassed sip, while Vasquez and Alex laughed on and on and Astra reached out to assure her that her research of earth relationships had shown that this was all very normal.

 

Surprisingly, Jake wasn’t looking at her like some kicked puppy, instead he was nodding along like he too was in on the whole thing.

 

“I think I understand.” He said after a moment.

 

For the first time since she’d walked in, she looked at him and held his gaze, having a feeling that she’d want more than a stolen glance for what he was about to say next.

 

“I grew up in Boston, we were pretty poor, except for the times when we weren’t.” And she thought she’d been cryptic. “I would skip out on school in favor of, well, less favorable things. I could pick a pocket long before I could multiply.

 

“Luckily, someone showed me that I could turn my life around, and I did, and I’d like to think I’ve done a pretty decent job of it too.” He smiled in a self-depreciating way. “I’m proud of what I’ve done, of who I became, and even though it wasn’t all peaches and smiles, I’m proud of where I come from too.

 

“But most of my friends from BU couldn’t understand the break-down I had on the third day of my sophomore year when I got hit with the bill for my tuition because the paperwork for my scholarship ended up on the wrong floor of the registrar’s office.  And the story I told at the last convention I went to, about the time I broke into the MIT museum because I couldn’t afford a ticket got me more looks of pity than of understanding.

 

“It makes you feel divided, I hold off on telling people about my background sometimes, because I just want to feel like a whole person, just as deserving as they are to be where I am, not like I’m some imposter trying to fit in among them.”

 

Kara nodded along, feeling a sudden surge of gratitude for him. As weird as this whole thing with her and Cat had been, and as much as she’d resented him recently, he was still nice and good in that undeniable way and Kara couldn’t help but feel kindred to him, in another life she could actually see them being friends.

 

“For what it’s worth,” He startled her from her thoughts, “I don’t think Cat would ever make you feel like that. That doesn’t mean that she’s entitled to your story, but I think if you wanted to share it, on your own terms, she’d keep it safe.”

 

Kara nodded, then returned her gaze to the view outside the window. For the next few minutes they sat in a comfortable silence, each turning over their own thoughts.

 

“You were right.” Kara finally said, looking back to him.

 

He looked up, “Aren’t I always?” He joked with a bright smile, trying to each the tension that’d settled around him. “But, just for kicks and giggles, why don’t you tell me what I was right about this time?”

 

Kara couldn’t help the fond smile as she caught sight of his dimples, knowing he was trying to put her at ease, she suddenly remembered why she liked him so much when this all started.

 

“When you said that I liked being the one to give Cat what she needs.” She admitted shyly, reluctantly.

 

Jake gave her a knowing smile, “That’s not a bad thing, you know. I meant it when I said I just wanted you to be aware. Understanding what motivates you in your relationship can go a long way to helping you be a better partner.”

 

Kara rolled her eyes, wondering if he sometimes forgot that she and Cat weren’t like his other couples, but she didn’t mention it. “Cat should be here any minute.” She said instead, hearing the chime of her boss’s private elevator two floors away, she made a show of looking at her watch, proud of herself when Jake looked at his watch too and nodded.

 

When he looked back up and flashed her his usual charming smile, she decided she probably owed Lucy a drink for pushing her into this, she still didn’t have it all completely figured out, but for the first time since Cat cornered her on the balcony and forced her to remove her glasses, she felt like maybe she was finding some even footing.

 

///

Cat watched as Kara scampered up from her desk. It’d been a long two weeks but they’d finally made it to the day of their next session and Cat wondered, very briefly, if maybe Kara was going to sneak off under the guise of official superhero business in an effort to avoid the inevitable. But the slow shuffle of her feet and the way she was wringing her hands as she weaved through the cubicles was distinctly different than her standard fast stroll, which, when coupled with that slight head tilt, usually signals a disaster worthy of Supergirl’s intervention.

There was still something secretive about it though, the way she refused to look towards Cat’s office as she made her way to the elevator bank, despite the fact that she knew Kara could feel her eyes on her.

She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been watching the minutes tick by, bringing them closer to what was beginning to feel like mutually assured destruction.  

After two weeks, the world finally felt like it was shifting back into place, and part of her was loath to throw away their newly found equilibrium. The other, and somewhat bigger part of her recognized the importance of seeing this through. She knew that the fissures that has become present in their relationship in the last few months would have only grown, if they hadn’t been forced to confront them. She could better recognize the mistakes they’d each made now, and despite the dread she felt each Tuesday afternoon, there was also a sliver of hope that they were doing the right thing, that they could become themselves again, maybe even a better version than they’d been before.

She rolled the cap of her pen between her fingers as she thought back on her week. Her trip to Opal city had been a blessing in disguise. Not only had she had some time to herself while also getting a chance to see her oldest son, she’d managed to unknowingly clear the air with him over the situation with Kara.

She’d known, even before the revelation, that she’d been unfair to Kara. It wasn’t her assistant’s fault that Adam hadn’t stayed in National City. Even if he had left because Kara wouldn’t pursue a relationship with him, it had been wrong of Cat to push her toward her son for her own gain. But it’d been an easy excuse to make to herself, to attribute Adam’s absence with a broken heart caused by a failed relationship and not because she’d been failing him for nearly twenty years.

Knowing now that he was going to leave all along simultaneously lifted that weight off her shoulders while also serving as a reminder to not be so quick to make her own leaps. She was an investigative reporter, she was a practice in patience, she’d once spent three months sorting through old police files to find a fresh lead in a RICO case that nobody could seem to get any information on. And yet, when it came to Kara she found herself making rash decisions, confronting her about her identity, blaming her for Adam, hiring Siobhan. Where she’d usually step back, examine, make a plan, she found herself rushing forward, without regard for the fallout. She supposed that in itself was worth investigating.

But that would have to wait, she decided, looking at the clock, surprised so see that her musings had distracted her for far longer than she’d intended. She stood, absentmindedly sipping down the last dregs of the now cold coffee that Kara had quietly set on her desk an hour ago, tossing the cup in the trash as she rounded her desk and made her way toward her elevator, hoping that wherever Kara had scampered off to, she’d see a clock and remember their session that’d be starting in a few minutes.

///

As Cat rounded the corner, she heard amicable chatter coming from the room down the hall, a clear sign that Kara was already there and waiting for her, which meant that whatever had pulled her away earlier was taken care of.

Kara stood as she walked into the room, moving from where she’d been sitting in the middle of the couch to the far left end she usually claimed, flashing Cat an uncertain smile as she did so. Cat wasn’t sure the look she sent back was any better but if she’d learned one thing in her nearly thirty years as a journalist, besides the obvious general rule of thumb to bring copious amounts of alcohol and other soothers to any Fox News interviews, it was that confidence, even when faked, was more convincing to most people than any straight fact or figure.

_“I find that reminding humans of how fragile their skeletal structures are has a similar effect.”_

_“Oh my god. You can’t just say things like that! This is why we can’t take you anywhere.”_

Jake watched the two of them as they settled in, going out of their way to appear more comfortable than they really were. He allowed them both a moment longer than usual before starting, needing the extra time himself to take a breath and calm his nerves.

For him, this was The Session™. While Cat and Kara had probably each considered their last session as the big one, he knew better. The airing of grievances was important because it broke everything down, all their issues, the biggest problems coming to light, but today, today was about building it back up, recreating something from the pile of rubble they’d been left with the week before. With one last deep sigh he started in.

“When I was eighteen, I met my best friend,” he started, “and then I married her two weeks later. It was that kind of stupid Dharma and Greg type thing, it was ill advised and reckless and perfect…until it wasn’t. We lasted a solid two years before it started to unravel. We were suddenly fighting all of the time, it felt like the person that I thought I’d known best was replaced with some kind of impostor.

“So we started the divorce proceedings, and for two people with nothing to our names it got messy fast. We were both just so angry at each other, and at ourselves, that we let it consume us; anything to spite the other.

“Then, one day, I was cleaning out the storage closet in our little shack of an apartment; I started it because I wanted to find the good dish set and hide it away; I really couldn’t have cared less about the damn things but she loved them, except, in my haste to get through the mess that’d accumulated there before she got home, I knocked over a box and about a hundred pieces of paper fluttered down, covering the two by two space that was our living room.

“As I bent down to quickly clean it up and return to my task, frustrated that it was costing me precious time, I recognized one of the papers as a note I’d left for her on our bathroom mirror a few months into our marriage. It was something stupid, I can’t even remember it now, probably just a quick, ‘went to grab donuts’, but she’d kept it. The rest of the box was the same, notes and doodles that we’d accumulated over two years, a chronology of our life together.

“And I think that’s how she found me, an hour later, sobbing like a baby, as I flipped through every single piece of paper, and she sat down next to me and held my hand. We stayed there the rest of the night, drinking cheap wine that I’m pretty sure was only a half a step up from Boone’s Farm, and I remembered why we loved each other so much.”

“So you got back together?” Kara asked hopefully.

“No.” He laughed around his answer. “No, no, our marriage was not salvageable.”

“But you’re a couple’s therapist!” Kara all but shouted indignantly, while Cat just sat back, having something of an idea of where this was going.

“Yes, I am,” He agreed, smile still in place, “granted back then, I was just a smart mouth kid who regularly left wet towels on the bathroom floor but that’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point?” Cat had to resist the smile at the irritation in Kara’s voice.

“The point is, that in all of the chaos, in that brokenness, we had forgotten what was at the core of us, our roots. This was my best friend, the person who’d taken care of me more in two years than my parents had in twenty, and I was going out of my way to take something that I knew made her happy just because she wouldn’t be sharing that happiness with me?

“So, we fired our attorneys and hired a mediator instead. She got the stupid plates, and I got whatever was left of the cheap wine. It wasn’t much, but we were finally treating each other the way the eighteen-year-old versions of us would have.” He said with a bittersweet smile, half lost in the memory.

“While I must admit that reliving your ironically failed marriage is riveting, I am paying you to be _our_ therapist, not the other way around.” Cat finally chimed in with a disinterested eye-roll.

“I’m simply using this as an example to illustrate my point,” He explained patiently. “an anecdote to lead us into today’s session.”

Cat merely waved her hand at him to get along with it, the “chop chop” not verbalized but practically bouncing between Kara’s ears as Jake shook his head with a fond but slightly exasperated smile before continuing.

“Today, I’d like to focus on what drew you to each other. Kara why did you want to work at CatCo? And Cat, why, out of the hundreds of applicants did you choose Kara? I want you to be thinking back on how well you’ve worked together, a reminder that even with how tough things have been recently, you’ve built something worth working together for.”

“But you didn’t save your relationship.” Kara pointed out.

“No, I didn’t save my marriage,” He conceded, “but my relationship?” He gave Kara one of his rare Meaningful Looks™, the kind that told her he was about to impart what he believed to be life changing wisdom on her. “Divorcing each other was the best thing Nat and I could have done, she’s still one of my best friends, and I love her more than anyone else on this planet, but we had to allow our relationship to change and grow to save it. Sometimes that happens; letting something stay stagnant to avoid change is, to be frank, foolish.”

If Alex had ever said anything like that, Kara would have probably cracked some kind of joke to deflect, probably something Karate Kid-esque, Alex had taken to calling her Grasshopper to confuse Astra.

But this wasn’t the DEO or her living room on girls’ night, and she had recently promised herself to give this another chance so instead she spoke up, surprising both the other members of the room with what she had to say.

“My English wasn’t great when I was adopted.” It was an odd segue, and she could feel the curious glances from Cat and Jake burning into her but she pushed forward. “I could understand it, and speak it, but it was too proper or at least that’s what my sister tells me. I started to read a lot to get better. I liked The Planet, they covered a lot of Superman stories,” she had to resist rolling her eyes at herself, “it’s probably a cliché but after everything that happened, I liked the idea of somebody out there who was always looking out, keeping people safe.”

Kara could hear Cat’s sharp intake of breath; it was probably the closest they’d gotten to these topics since last December. She tried her best to ignore it, surging on.

“My foster parents had stacks and stacks of old copies in the basement, a friend of theirs worked there so they never threw any of them away, I pretty much devoured every word Lois Lane wrote.” She told them like she was confessing a sin, one she may even be half pleased with, Cat made a show of acting annoyed at the new fact.

“My mother was, _is_ , my hero. But I was upset and confused, and I spent a lot of time thinking about the choices she made, wondering if things could have been different for us. I never admitted it though, it felt like a betrayal to even be thinking it.

“And then, one day, I was flipping through a new-to-me copy of The Daily Planet and I found a story written about a mistake Superman had made, it was something stupid, and some people got hurt, but there was radio silence, nothing from Lois, nothing from any other paper, nobody wanted to acknowledge that their infallible hero just, well, _wasn’t_. Except for one story, buried on page seventeen, it was something of a callout, it held him and the rest of us accountable, saying that he needed to slow down and think, and we needed to not put so much pressure on him to be perfect and to be our own heroes.

“At first I was angry, because I wanted to hold him in such high regard, but then – it was like I was being given permission to have those same kind of thoughts about my parents. I looked at the byline and saw it was written by Cat Grant. It was one of the last pieces you wrote for the Planet before launching CatCo,” she said looking to Cat who was looking back at her with something like amazement, “I started to follow your work; you made me think, you inspired me, you were what Lucy would call a ‘badass’. So, when the opportunity came up to come and work for you, I knew I couldn’t pass it up. As much as you…challenge me,” Kara said diplomatically, “I’ve never regretted it.”

Cat kept her eyes trained on the ceiling as she willed the tears that had begun to well not to fall. If anybody noticed, she’d blame it on all the dust that'd been cleared out of the room twelve weeks ago, knowing they’d let her get away with it.

She knew that if this same conversation had happened at any other moment, this would be the time where she hightailed it back to her office before she completely melted into one of those ridiculous people who openly cared about their employees. But this wasn’t one of those times, and Kara wasn’t just any other employee, not to mention the fact that Jake would probably tack on a surcharge to her bill for such behavior.

Instead, she reached over and gave Kara’s hand, which had been resting lamely in between them a quick a hard squeeze, knowing she could handle the extra strength. It only lasted a few seconds before she released it, resting her hand back in her lap and clearing her throat, face set in stone once more as she looked up at Jake, waiting for his next instruction.

“Cat-” She cut him off, quickly realizing by his tone that he would want her to say how Kara’s words made her feel, and she just wasn’t ready for that. At least not here, in an improved but still sterile office, with him looking in on them. She suddenly wanted her balcony, and a scotch, and Kara standing there, shoving a cup of M&Ms into her hand instead. 

"Right, well, I suppose I was drawn to Kara for the reasons any good businesswoman would be. Her resume was impressive – a B.A. in both Public Policy and Urban Planning from UCLA and an MJ in Journalism from Berkley – an impressive feat for somebody her age, not to mention the laundry list of internships and community service projects. After four days straight with nobody lasting more than an hour and a half, I was willing to hire anybody, even a millennial." She said instead, trying to bring the atmosphere in the room back to a place where she could breathe. 

She looked to the left to see Kara shooting her a dissatisfied look, which was something of a surprise, in the past it would have been enough to placate her, apparently things really were changing between them. 

"I know the reputation I hold,” she continued after a moment, “I know that most people who want to work for me are simply looking at CatCo as a jumping board, a way to pad their resume, if they can survive life with Cat Grant, they can go on to work anywhere they want. But when I interviewed Kara," She paused, thinking back to 10:15am, a time forever burned into her brain, "there was no reluctance, no grudging acceptance that being my assistant was a necessary evil on the path to something better.

“Kara wasn’t there to help herself, she just,” she turned and looked at the girl on her left, “wanted to be useful.” The words Kara used in that first interview echoed back at her.

“I won’t lie and say our meeting was some sort of earth shattering event.” She said looking back at Jake. “But I knew that she was special,” her voice took on a soft tone, “and so far, you’ve yet to prove me wrong.” She finished, glancing again at Kara.

It wasn’t as longwinded or sentimental as Kara’s share but Cat could tell from the uptick in her smile and the small spark in her eyes that it wasn’t the wrong thing to say.

Where before, she’d throw in a sharp barb to level their power dynamic back out again, she instead held Kara’s eyes and smiled back softly before turning attentively to Jake as he started back in.

As Kara held her eyes, apparently not listening to Jake any more than she was, the thought struck her once more, things really were changing between them.

///

“I guess, theoretically, you could run the numbers. Though I doubt the small difference in her height would be enough to account for the bigger gap her increased speed would cause.” Alex said, a distant look on her face as she attempted to mentally run her calculations.

“If she even moves at those speeds regularly enough to cause a difference,” Vasquez argued back, “look at Hubble, her clock is usually never more than .005 seconds off from ours and she’s constantly moving.”

“Is that why my watch is always a few minutes off from my cell?” Lucy asked, only half listening to the conversation as she pilfered through a stack of paperwork in search of file she needed for a congressional meeting she was prepping Astra for.

“I think that has more to do with the fact that you fiddle with the damn thing all the time.” Vasquez answered, with a look of fondness.

“Well, I can’t help but fidget when you people are so boring all the time.” Lucy replied. “I mean; why does it even matter if time passes five billionths of a millisecond faster for Kara?”

It was apparently the wrong question to ask as Alex and Susan both launched in on exactly why it did matter, thank you very much!

Astra just sat in the corner looking unimpressed as she pulled parts off various weapons, rearranging them into something new as though they were Lego pieces. Alex had tried to get her to stop an hour earlier to no avail, at this point she was kind of interested to see what she came up with.

Finally, in an attempt to break up the argument that was quickly spiraling, Lucy plopped down next to Astra, picking up a stray clip that’d been discarded on the table, twirling it between her fingers before nonchalantly announcing, “I met Cat and Kara’s therapist last week,” to the room.

 Three sets of eyes snapped to hers and she smiled victoriously.

“You what?” Alex was the first to ask, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I ran into him at Noonan’s, he was sweet, I can see why Kara liked him so much. Or likes him, I don’t know,” she furrowed her eyebrows, “have we heard yet how this week’s session went?”

“Back-up.” Alex demanded. “You met him? And that was it? Just a hello? How did you even explain that?”

“Yes…and no? We talked for a little bit, I told him I was their friend, which is true, and I maybe gave him a little insight.”

“What kind of insight?” Alex narrowed her eyes.

“I may have suggested that they could benefit from redefining their relationship outside of its professional context.” Lucy said diplomatically.

“You told him they should be friends?” Alex asked hopefully, already aware of where this was probably going.

“Or something beyond that.”

“Lucy!”

“Oh, come on, you guys can’t say you don’t see it too!” She exclaimed, looking at the other women, though passing over Alex quicker than the other two.

“She owns one of the biggest media corporations in the world! Do you know what that could do to Kara? What _she_ could do to Kara?”

“She wouldn’t do that!” Lucy defended. “And really, do you want your sister to end up with my ex-boyfriend? Or worse, Winn? Because if you don’t want her exposing her identity to anybody else, you’re running out of options, and at least Cat already knows, even if those two idiots won’t talk about it.” When Alex kept glaring, she continued, “Alex, trust me, if you saw them together, you’d see it too.”

 Alex didn’t say anything just tightening her arms and dropping her chin to look at her feet while she thought. Vasquez stood silently behind her, glancing between the two, looking ready to voice her own thoughts on the subject.

Astra beat her to it as she set her contraption down with a thunk. “From what I’ve heard, this Cat Grant is more evolved than the young man who was picked as a mate for Kara on Krypton, so just keep in mind that it could be worse, Brave One.”

Alex blew out a deep breath pushing Lucy to continue. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think Jake will do anything with the information, he seemed pretty set on not allowing for any outside interference, and I won’t mention anything to Cat or Kara either, I just think it’s worth preparing for, even without intervention, I can see it happening, and Kara deserves for you to be on board.” With that, she stood, finally seeing that file she’d been searching for balanced precariously on the edge of her desk, she grabbed it and motioned for Astra to follow her out, leaving Alex to brood, knowing Vasquez would handle it.

///

Kara sat at her desk, journal open in front of her, debating what to write next, she knew what she wanted to put down, she just wasn’t sure if she was ready to or not.

Jake had told them that their homework for the week would be to write down a few important things that had happened in their lives since their meeting. Her list was already long, causing her to realize just how much she’d grown in the past few years, but she knew there was still something missing.

She looked into her boss’s office. Cat sat behind her desk, oblivious to anything beyond whatever she was revising, one pair of glasses perched on her nose, another propped on top of her head forgotten.

She couldn’t help the smile that fell onto her face at the sight. The rest of their session had gone well, and for a moment, it felt like they were just three friends sitting together discussing their lives. She wondered if Jake would still be around when all this was done, realizing she’d actually miss him if he wasn’t.

She was snapped from her thoughts when Cat looked up, catching her eyes and smiling back. She set down her own pen and stood, reaching up to take both pairs of glasses off, setting them down before coming around from behind the desk and walking out to where Kara sat, journal now folded neatly closed, her pen acting as a bookmark.

“I need a break from that monstrosity Derek calls a think piece.” She told Kara. “Dinner?” She asked.

“Sure,” Kara responded with a smile, “why don’t you grab your coat, it’s supposed to be windy tonight.” She suggested.

As soon as Cat turned to walk back for the garment, she flipped the journal back open, with one last look at her boss’s retreating form she picked up the pen and hastily scribbled one word in all caps.

_SUPERGIRL_

She closed it and stuffed it back into her desk as she heard Cat’s footsteps approaching once more, reaching behind her for her own unnecessary jacket before following her to her elevator.

///

“Like I said, nothing eventful.” Cat finished describing their session, keeping most of the details to herself, not wanting to break Kara’s confidence or expose herself too much.

“I guess so.” Lucy agreed, making a note to still get Kara’s thoughts on it when she was ready to talk.

Astra had been silent through most of the recap, not wanting to say anything that would reveal her own relationship with Kara and compromise her niece's identity, but hearing the obvious affection in Cat's tone throughout her little spiel had warmed her to the woman and she could see where Lucy was coming from.

Before anything else could be said, the girl in question came shuffling up to the table distractedly. “Sorry about that Miss Grant, my sister really is helpless sometimes.” She said, eyes focused on her phone as she typed out a message.

“Not to worry, I had company.” Cat responded, watching as Kara’s head snapped up, eyes widening as she saw the other two occupants at the table.

“Oh.”

“My co-worker and I were just grabbing dinner and saw Cat and I couldn’t leave without saying hello.” Lucy explained.

“Right.”

“Right.” Lucy repeated. “Well, it looks like our order is about up, we’ll let you two get back to it.” She motioned for Astra to stand so she could get out of the booth. “Cat, it was a pleasure. Kara, call me tomorrow if you still want to do lunch.”

“Right, lunch.” Kara said, still distracted.

“General, if you reconsider that interview…” Cat offered, ignoring the gaping fish impression Kara was putting on.

“I believe I recall the location of your offices.” Astra smiled genuinely, just as amused at Kara’s reaction to her presence. “Goodnight Miss Grant. Miss Grant’s associate.” She nodded at Kara before following Lucy to the counter.

As they left, and rounded the corner, Astra could still see Kara finally sliding into the booth, confusion replaced with something else as she laughed at something Cat said.

She didn’t know what Alex was so upset about, as far as she was concerned, Cat Grant was already proving herself to be a better suitor for her niece than any of those men had been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whatcha think? I was a little nervous about this chapter being framed from Cat's retelling but I thought it was good to mix it up a little.


	4. Week 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys! New chapter! This one went through three of four rounds of pretty strict editing so hopefully I got all the bugs out and smoothed it up a little :)

Astra studied her niece’s face, even after nearly a year of being back in each other’s lives, she couldn’t fight the urge to soak-up the child she’d thought she’d lost.

Tonight was one of those rare evenings where the two of them were alone. Astra was assigned to stay with her for a few days as part of her agreement with the DEO. She wasn’t allowed to stay on her own yet, so a group of pre-selected agents took turns giving her a place to sleep.

Astra didn’t mind, after nearly thirty-five years of living in Fort Rozz, even if the last eleven she’d been mostly free to come and go, she was enjoying the opportunity to live as a new age nomad.

And if it gave her the opportunity to reconnect with the missing piece of her heart, even if that just meant staring unabashedly at her for long lengths of time, she was even more content with the arrangement.

Kara didn’t seem to mind. Astra knew that Kara did the same when she didn’t think Astra was looking, because of Astra herself or because of the resemblance to Alura she wasn’t sure, but it made her feel warm and bright all the same.

“I’m conflicted.” Kara spoke softly in Kryptonian, and despite the message her words sent, there was an underlying look of gentle ease at being able to use her native language with somebody who wouldn’t butcher the consonants with their sharp English speaking tongue.

“What’s troubling you?” Astra asked, having had a feeling a conversation like this would come eventually.

“The world is spinning too fast, even for me, and Cat is being weird, and I’m being weird, and Alex is being the weirdest. I even had Lucy covertly take a hair sample to make sure she wasn’t some impostor.”

Astra laughed openly, she’d been there for that interaction, and knew that Alexandra was still confused about what exactly had happened.

“Tell me.” She insisted when her laughter subsided.

“I guess it started after you and Lucy left Noonan’s…”

///

Kara briefly watched as Lucy and Astra made their way out of Noonan’s, still confused and slightly concerned with Astra’s meeting Cat. She mindlessly slid back into her seat.

“…oh and remind me to call James Corden in the morning to turn down his request for that rap battle segment.”

Kara was pulled from her thoughts of Astra at the comment, not being able to help her laughter at the image of Cat wearing a snapback, going toe to toe with the Late Late Show host.

The twinkle Cat had in her eyes, when Kara’s laughter finally subsided and she looked up, told her that it was probably a planned move to distract from the weird encounter they’d just had. She couldn’t bring herself to care, easily falling back into their conversation which had been cut off when she’d been called away to assist with a small pileup on the interstate.

It felt oddly normal, to be sitting there, eating together and trading conversation and quips like two kids on a playground with a stack of cards. Aside from the Corden comment, work hadn’t been brought up at all. For any outsider they must look like two friends sharing dinner.

It struck Kara suddenly, as she listened to Cat describe her latest run in with her mother that perhaps that’s what they were now.

Maybe this therapy really was working after all and they were finally coming to a place where they could have something more.

Cat had said it once, that you could have it all but not all the time and not all at once.

Perhaps that same reasoning applied here; perhaps they really could be professional and still be friends, even if occasionally, one role had to be set aside to make room for the other, and even if it’d been a long time coming. Kara thought it was worth it all the same, as Cat burst into a grin, the real genuine kind, as she finished telling her story.

Kara knew that her own presence had something to do with that, Cat had probably told the same story to the woman who did her nails this afternoon, and Kara knew, without having to have been there, that Cat would have smiled that smug, slightly contrived smile, proud of herself for outwitting Katherine once again. But here, with Kara, two friends having dinner, there was a lightness, she was relaxed enough to let that powerful persona slide away for just a little while.

“And what, pray tell, is so amusing, hmm? A pile of puppies a few streets away? A children’s chorus in the church the next block over?” Cat inquired, with yet another thinly veiled reference to Kara’s abilities.

She hadn’t even realized she’d been smiling herself, in the way that Lucy would probably latch onto if she were still here, in the way she wasn’t sure she herself wanted to dissect right now, if at all.

“I like this.” She said instead.

Cat didn’t need her to say more for the meaning to be understood, she hummed in agreeance.

Neither said more for a few moments, what they were sharing was nice but fragile and sometimes less really was more.

So they sat in a comfortable silence, Kara finishing her milkshake, the one she’d ordered with two extra maraschino cherries, even going so far as to offer one to Cat when the waiter set it down on the table; and really the fact that she’d tolerated such a move was evidence to Cat the shift their relationship was taking.

A few minutes later, as Cat fiddled with her phone, shooting off a text to Carter to remember to brush his teeth before bed, a habit that tended to fall to the wayside under his father’s supervision, Kara finished her treat, exerting extra self-restraint not to slurp up the dregs in the bottom of the glass like she would if she were at dinner with Alex or Winn.

Cat looked up to see Kara settling the cup back on its napkin. “Done?” She asked.

Kara nodded happily.

“I’ll let David know we’re ready to be picked up.” Cat said, looking back to her phone.

“Can we walk?” Kara asked, “Please? The penthouse isn’t far and I should probably make an attempt to burn some of that off.” She continued at Cat’s look of apprehension, nodding to her plate that only thirty minutes ago had been piled high with a burger the size of her head and bottomless steak cut fries.

“Well, I suppose if your metabolism would suffer…” Cat allowed, both of them knowing it was a lame excuse, “but you’ll let David drive you home once we reach the penthouse.”

“Deal.” Kara said, crossing her heart, the seriousness in the gesture nothing but sincere.

Cat rolled her eyes but couldn’t help the pang of endearment in the pit of her stomach. She was suddenly brought back to her conversation with Adam, _“Definitely not James Olsen.”_ She wasn’t really sure why, it was an odd thought to have so she decided not to dwell on it.

She shook herself and stood, following her assistant out of the restaurant and onto the street. She heard Kara’s happy sigh as she breathed in the fresh springtime air, there was something almost hedonistic in her expression.

“So it’s not just my balcony then?” Cat teased.

Kara smiled, turning to look at her as they walked, a move which Cat was sure would result in her tripping over her own feet before they reached her building. “I didn’t really go outside a lot when I was young.” She admitted, “Where I grew up, it was a pretty big city, and most of the buildings were connected in some way so there wasn’t really a need for it. For the most part, aside from the times when we would travel, I spent my life indoors.”

Cat couldn’t deny her curiosity, it was another one of those conversations that bordered just on the edge of admittance, she didn’t interrupt though, content to let Kara talk.

“It was so weird when I moved in with the Danvers, I mean, their house was connected to a lighthouse, right on the beach. With seagulls.”

There was something about the way she said the word seagulls that made Cat want to ask questions but she once again resisted.

_“This infatuation with birds…Is it because you can fly? I’ve been reading a lot about Freud-”_

_“Aunt Astra, focus.”_

“Sometimes at night, Alex and I would sit on the roof and we would stargaze, when it was nice out, like this.” She said, spreading her hands almost as though she could latch on to the breeze that gently brushed by them.

“You can’t really do much of that here.” Cat replied, glancing briefly at the sky, the city too bright to allow for anything more than a few pinpricks of light, half of which were probably just passing planes.

“Yeah.” Kara agreed, looking up herself, surely seeing more than Cat had.

“Did you know,” Kara said after a moment, turning to look back to Cat, “that if you make a pinhole with your fingers,” She demonstrated, pinching her thumb and forefinger together, “you can see just a little bit more?” She peered between the small space her fingers had created and looked up to the sky, not that it really did much for her specifically but Cat guessed maybe this was still part of the demonstration.

A second passed before she turned back to Cat a pleased smile on her face, “Alex taught me, because usually, light from everywhere is hitting your eyes but with such a narrow space, only direct light can reach your pupil and the lens doesn’t need to focus to adjust so you can see just a little clearer.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Cat drew out in feigned indifference.

Kara just smiled wider. The next few blocks passed with only the sounds of the city in their ears. Kara knew they’d be to Cat’s doorstep soon, she drew in a breath, preparing herself.

“Cat?” It was weird to use the other woman’s first name in front of her, but what she was about to say was much too personal for anything else.

Cat immediately turned to her, it was the first time since the Red K incident that she’d heard her name pass Kara’s lips.

“I’ve been thinking, you know about all the things that have happened since we met,” she could actually picture the words she’d written in her journal, “and I guess what I’m saying is that I do trust you, so-”

Cat held up a hand to stop her. “While I personally don’t see the difference, you know how Jacob gets about us discussing our assignments before session.” She deflected.

It was hard to explain, even to herself, why she did it. She’d been pushing for Kara to tell her the truth for months now, and suddenly she was stopping her from doing so. There was just something about the moment that didn’t feel right, maybe it was the fact that they were so exposed, on a public sidewalk half a block from her door, or maybe there was a part of her that wanted Kara to be really sure and not just say something because Cat laid a guilt trip on her.

Whatever the reason, Kara tried to understand, a brief look of confusion and hurt passed her face before she nodded. “Later though?” She asked to be sure it wasn’t a brush off.

“Yes, Kara.” She reassured, she reached out briefly to give Kara’s wrist a squeeze, letting her hand drop as they came to stand in front of her building. David was already waiting at the curb. It was reminiscent of three weeks ago when she’d returned home from the airport.

“Goodnight Kara.” She spoke softly, ushering her toward the car.

“Goodnight Miss Grant.” Kara replied as she dropped into her seat, the door closing behind her. Cat turned and walked up the steps to her building, noting that the car didn’t pull away until the door had safely clicked shut behind her.

///

As Cat sat and pretended to listen to Derek attempt to defend his lifeless lifestyle piece in their morning meeting a few days later, she fiddled with her business card holder, pushing it just a millimeter to the right to realign it with the edge of her desk, all the while contemplating the perfect insult to throw at him when he was done, something just cutting enough to let him know his work was once again insufficient without being so bold as to turn him into another homicidal ex-employee.

Kara was currently out of the office on a quest for some new miracle skin cream Portia had mentioned at poker night, which meant she could probably get away with something just slightly more ruthless without those disappointed puppy dog eyes being pointed her way.

Sending him to the zoo and forcing him to personally apologize to every squid there for wasting their hard earned ink on his own shit spray sounded particularly fun, especially if it meant she wouldn’t have to see his stupid face for the next six hours.

She’d been deciding whether cleaning her glasses or pretending to pick the non-existent lint off of her sleeve while she delivered her criticism would add the right ambiance to her words when she looked up and realized he’d stopped talking. Apparently she’d let the silence lapse too long and her time to give him her exact thoughts had passed.

He’d taken her lack of response as response enough and he, along with a handful of other staff members, not wanting to be caught in her crossfire, scurried from her office.

She was about to call them back to berate them for leaving without permission but was caught off guard when she heard one of them mumble to another.

“I have half a mind to pitch the story of how she’s screwing her assistant just to see the look on her face, because really? _We_ lack work ethic and she’s the one sneaking down to thirty-eight once a week to hide out in a locked room with Danvers for an hour.”

She almost missed the last half as he turned the corner, but her lip reading was excellent and the glass walls out to the bullpen had been installed for just this reason.

She was oddly surprised when it was Derek who turned to the other man with a glare telling him he should probably get some actual work done instead of sitting there speculating about their boss’s personal life.

She was suddenly glad that Kara was across town where she couldn’t have heard the comment. She didn’t need these idiots planting the idea in her head that Cat would ever take advantage of their situation in such a way.

Still, she can’t help but let her shoulders tense at the accusation, even if she wasn’t meant to hear it, and even if Kara never had to know about it, there was a dread growing in the pit of her stomach.

It wasn’t that people thought her the type of woman to have causal sex in the office. She liked sex. And she owned the damn place. If she wanted to turn a whole floor into her own personal sex dungeon, then fuck them if they didn’t like it.

This was something else, something she could feel sitting just off in her periphery, and no matter how much she tried to make a grab for it, she just couldn’t reach.

But it bothered her. It crept under her skin and rooted itself there refusing to give her its name.

Part of her wanted to say she was simply outraged on Kara’s behalf, but it didn’t feel right. Yes, she felt bad Kara had been pulled into this mess simply because Cat was incapable of balancing an interpersonal relationship with a professional one, but Kara had proven recently that she was fully capable of fighting her own battles, both literally and figuratively.

No, there was something else lingering, a feeling just a little too internal for her liking, and until she was able to scrape together an idea of what it was, she needed to try her best to dissuade the rumors from reaching further.

///

“I would like to once again point out that you are the one who demanded prime one-on-one sister time tonight.”

Kara sighed, she knew she was being terrible company, especially terrible since she’d begged Alex to switch her night shift at the DEO with somebody else so they could have a sisters-only-sleepover.

“Sorry.” She offered, holding out the last potsticker in apology, an act that truly meant something was wrong.

Instead of taking it, Alex set her plate aside, making a grab to do the same with Kara’s. Once the dishes were clear, she paused the TV, turning so that Kara had her full attention.

“Alright, tell me.” She demanded, putting on her best authoritative big sister voice.

Kara sighed again, “No this is our sister-night, I don’t want to ruin it with all of this, let’s just restart the episode, I’ll stay focused this time, I promise.”

“Kara.” Alex drew her name out in warning.

Kara fidgeted with her hands for a moment before finally bursting into a longwinded ramble, “It’s Cat. Again. And I know you’re sick of hearing about this, and I know you hate her, but I can’t help it! And I know you think I should just quit and cut my losses, but it’s important to me, she’s important to me, and I really thought we were back on the right path but now I’m not so sure, and I don’t know how to ask her, and I would usually ask you, but I feel like it’s all we ever talk about lately and you have to be getting annoyed with it and I just don’t know who to talk to then because the boys don’t get it, and Lucy seems to get it too much and it makes me feel like I’m missing something, and I just really don’t know what I’m doing anymore. And also, I miss you a lot too but that’s not the point, I just-”

“Breathe.” Alex interrupted her, demonstrating.

Kara followed her lead, sucking in a mouthful of air and trying to shake the rest of her nervous energy out. “Sorry.” She said again.

Alex quickly brushed the apology off, instead digging into everything her sister had just blurted. “That was a lot to take in all at once, maybe we could start at the beginning?” She suggested.

“Alex, we don’t have to. I know, even though this whole thing amuses you, you don’t like Ca-”

Alex cut her off again. “I never said I didn’t like her,” Alex stated, ignoring Kara’s challenging look, “and even if I didn’t, I love _you,_ so if you only ever talked about Cat Grant again, then that would be okay.”

Kara rolled her eyes doubtfully.

“No, really. Listen, I may not always like the way she treats you, but I get why she’s important to you. I know that sometimes she speaks your language in a way I can’t.”

“Alex…”

“No, Kara, that’s okay. I’m not, like, jealous. I get it. It’s like…when I want to talk about genome sequences, I talk to Vasquez or Mom or even Astra, who really is too smart for what we have her doing, by the way -”

_“I believe your sister has what is called a ‘thing’ for me.”_

_“Oh my god, just shoot me now.”_

_“Why? The bullet would merely bounce off of you and could ricochet into somebody else.”_

_“Could we just, get back to the story?”_

_“Of course, let’s hear more about Alexandra’s infatuation with me.”_

_“I’m ignoring you now.”_

“-I mean, I know you get the science more than you let on sometimes, but it’s not really your thing, you don’t connect to it the way they do. It’s okay for us to have other people in our lives to talk to besides each other. At the end of the day, you’re _my_ baby sister, you’re stuck with me for life, we don’t need a therapist to tell us that.” She teased.

Kara shoved her lightly, before pulling her in for a hug. “I love you.”

“I love you more.” Alex replied, giving Kara’s shoulder’s one last, extra hard, squeeze before releasing her so they could face each other again. “Now, what’s going on with Cat?”

“I don’t know.” Kara admitted. “She was fine this morning and then she sent me out to track down this moisturizer and when I got back she was completely different.”

“Different how?”

“Just dismissive? I guess?” She said, clearly unsure herself how to describe her boss’s weird mood. “It was like it had been, before.”

“After the Adam thing?” Alex asked.

“No. Not like that, she wasn’t being mean, at least not really. It was more like when I first started. It was like she was looking right through me. She called me Cora, twice.”

“Did you ask her what was wrong?” Alex asked, already knowing the answer.

“No, she was keeping me really busy and even if she wasn’t, what do I even say?”

““Hey fuckface, why are you being such a bitch?” seems good to me.” Alex said.

Kara shoved her again, harder this time, and Alex laughed. “You could maybe switch out fuckface for a Cat pun?”

“Alex.” Kara groaned. “You know how I feel about calling women bitches.”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s derogatory, although _you_ know that, as far as I’m concerned, bitch is a gender-neutral term, like dude.”

Kara just glared.

“Doesn’t stop you from using your fancy Kryptonian swear words nobody else understands.”

“And she wonders why I confide in other people.” Kara said to the room.

“Okay, ouch.” Alex said, feigning hurt.

Kara laughed. “But really,” She whined out, “what do I do?”

“Maybe she just had a bad day?” Alex suggested. “Her job is pretty stressful, and she’s allowed to not be perfect all the time.”

Kara looked at her suspiciously, usually Alex was the first on the ‘Cat-Grant-Is-Awful-And-Should-Be-Drop-Kicked-Into-Space-For-The-Way-She-Treats-My-Sister’ train.

Alex rolled her eyes. She was really trying here, just like Lucy had suggested and this was the response she was getting. She was really starting to feel Rodney Dangerfield on a spiritual level.

“Just,” she stalled, willing Kara to stop looking at her like she’d grown a second head, “just, see how she is tomorrow. It’s your therapy day anyway, and if she’s still being an ass, then make Jake fix it.”

“Just like that?” Kara asked.

“If you really want things to change, if you want something more with her,” there was something about the way she stumbled over the word _more_ that had Kara suspicious again, “then you need to be willing to step up and call her out. You have to be willing to give as good as you get or rather in your case, demand as much as you give.”

Kara thought it over, knowing Alex was right. She decided to take her advice, even if she wasn’t sure about her motives.

“I mean, personally, I’m still all for just letting me invoke the big sister code.” Alex continued in her silence. “There’s this warehouse down off of Pearl that’d be perfect and I’m pretty sure the guys downstairs would totally let me borrow an unmarked van without asking questions.”

“Alright…but noooo,” Kara drew out, slightly disturbed that her sister already seemed to have a plan for this, “thanks though?”

Alex just shrugged her shoulders indifferently.

“You know,” she said, deciding to change to topic, “if we’re talking about demanding things, I’m officially demanding to see you more, and not just when I’m half covered in alien goo. You should tell Hank that science says my Kryptonian physiology doesn’t work if I don’t get at least one night off with you a week.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Alex laughed.

“You just gotta demand what you want, Alex. ‘ _Give as good as you get.’_ ” She imitated her sister’s voice.

“That’s not how I sound.”

“That’s exactly how you sound.”

“Oh my god, just watch the show.” Alex groaned around a laugh, pulling Kara into her, and throwing the blanket that hung on the back of the couch over their laps before unpausing the TV.

///

Cat had half a mind to call the whole thing off. No more therapy, no more Jake. She could promote Kara and shove her into an office on another floor where they’d never see each other, maybe she’d even give her the one on thirty-eight out of spite.

Granted, that wasn’t likely to stop the rumor mill, if anything it would only encourage her employees’ ridiculous fantasies.

She’d been thinking of strategies for the past day and a half. When confronted with similar scenarios other women in her position had reacted in a multitude of ways that she could draw from.

Martha Stewart ridiculously engaged in insider trading to pull focus away from her rumored relationship with her assistant. And while Cat was more than sure she’d be able to survive the five-month prison sentence, she wasn’t about to sacrifice all three of her babies (CatCo included of course) or the livelihoods of her employees (Kara included) for something so ludicrous.

The more traditional choice was to go on a mass firing spree to reestablish dominance. Most employees found it hard to gossip when the dread of losing their meager paycheck loomed over them. This course of action was usually one she enjoyed, it made her feel like Tim Gunn on make-over day, but she and Kara had spent a whole weekend last month trimming the fat, or rather transferring a bunch of idiots to different departments where Kara felt they’d fit better, and side note: when did she become so soft that she let her assistant dictate who could and could not be terminated? Regardless, it just wasn’t in the cards right now.

Then of course, there was Miranda Priestly who up and married her assistant after a rumor started going around about them being involved after an incident where the girl broke several of Miranda’s firmly set in place rules without much consequence. God, the set of balls on that woman infuriated and inspired Cat simultaneously, yet out of all the scenarios, this was obviously the least likely to happen. Despite what her employees thought, she and Kara were not involved, and she’d promised herself after her divorce that she’d only marry again if her suitor met a very specific set of criteria and she wasn’t even sure if Kara would be open to item number twenty-two on her list…not that Kara met any of the previous twenty-one items or anything.

In the end none of it mattered, because really Cat Grant was not a woman who followed in somebody else’s path.

Which is how she found herself sitting across from Jake Casey on yet another Tuesday afternoon, Kara beside her fidgeting nervously as she cast sideways glances at Cat, and Cat falling into old habits, plainly ignoring the other occupants completely, or at least pretending to, head held high with an air of self-righteousness to counteract the uncertainty waring in her gut.

“Cat, why don’t you share some of the important experiences you’ve had since meeting Kara.” Jake suggested in a tone that wasn’t really suggestive in the least. She really missed the days when she’d been giving him the orders.

Kara had already shared her own list, long and thoughtful, though lacking one major life event, not that Cat blamed her, with Jake sitting there and with the way Cat had been acting the past few days, Supergirl would likely remain masked for the foreseeable future.

“Let’s see,” Cat started, not even bothering to open her journal, “since Kara began, I’ve expanded CatCo by twenty-seven percent, we’ve had a massive cleanse of our board, and I also managed to procure one of the best photojournalists in the nation from right under Lois Lane’s deviated septum.”

Jake pitched a sigh that would probably signify the beginning of a tantrum if he were still a teen.

More surprising was Kara. Kara who had played along for the last two days, for the last two years really, always giving Cat her space, letting her direct the flow of their relationship. Kara who gripped the edge of the couch tightly enough that Cat was just starting to see the hints of stuffing as she ground out a quiet and dangerous “Enough.”

“Excuse me?” Cat returned, expecting Kara to back down like she had after her outburst all those months ago.

“I said _enough_.” Kara’s voice was still low and rough and her face was a mask of steel. “You need to stop this. One minute you’re calling me your guardian angel and the next you’re shoving me in the basement to sort fifteen-year-old files while an Irish psychopath does my job. Then you want us to start therapy but you don’t put in any effort. You say you want to try, you act like we’re friends and then in the next breath you’re looking right through me like I’m not even here. I am so sick of you throwing me back and forth like I don’t have any say in what happens between us, like I’m unimportant. I’m important! I matter!”

She practically shouted the last bit, not realizing how much she needed to hear those words come out of her own mouth.

Jake looked impressed and a little bit in awe. Cat on the other hand had an unreadable expression on her face as she tapped her fingers on her thigh in contemplation.

Finally, after a long moment she spoke, “They think we’re sleeping together.” She said, voice loud and clear but devoid of any emotion.

“What?” Kara questioned, not following.

“The rest of the office, they think we come down here every Tuesday as part of our torrid little affair.” Her earlier wishes to protect Kara from this fact flew out the window in her haste to push back, to take control of the high ground once more.

“That’s what this is about?” Kara asked, not seeming shocked in the least.

“What do you mean _‘That’s what this is about?’_? Did you not just hear me? Your co-workers think you’re some kind of Lewinsky.” She hurled back.

“No, _they_ don’t. _Randal_ does, and maybe a few others throughout the years but even Derek has the sense not to involve himself in that particular rumor.” Kara was watching her strangely.

“You knew about this? And what do you mean _years_?” Cat could feel her discomfort growing.

“Well, yeah.” Kara stated like it was obvious. “It started probably three months after you hired me, it was apparently a new record for you, and people wanted to know how I’d managed it. Some of them started to say we were…you know…I mean it kind of freaked me out at first but Winn promised that nobody who really matted believed it, plus it’s ridiculous.”

Cat couldn’t help the pang of hurt at Kara’s quick dismissal even if she too thought the notion ridiculous.

“And you didn’t think to tell me this?”

“At first I thought you knew,” Kara said, “but then when I realized you didn’t, I just didn’t see the point in telling you, not when this is the reaction I knew I’d get.”

Cat wasn’t really sure how to respond to that at first. It was true, as evidenced by her own actions over the last few days that she wouldn’t have handled the information well, probably worse if it had come from Kara herself. Nonetheless, it upset her to purposefully be kept out of the loop. She needed to step up and set things straight, if she wanted to avoid the same thing happening again.

“What else haven’t you told me?” Cat questioned, surprisingly the anger had slipped out of her voice, but something else remained, her tone still low and discontented.

“Cat.” Kara sighed her name. “ _Miss Grant_ -” She corrected only to be cut off.

“I don’t want you keeping things from me.”

“Miss Grant, I promise-”

“No. Let me finish.” Cat ordered as Kara fell over herself to explain. “You shouldn’t have to worry about how I’ll react. I just-” It was rare that Cat found herself at a loss for words. “I remember what it was like to be a young woman at the Planet and everybody thought I was sleeping with Perry and nobody took me seriously, it was so frustrating to continually have to prove myself only to have somebody new say the same thing.

“I’ve put you through a lot, Kara. I’ve been mean and dismissive, sometimes to teach you a lesson and sometimes because I’m just being a bitch.”

Kara had to bite her tongue, wanting so badly to voice her disapproval at the term.

“Regardless, I’ve always thought that I’d done a good job of protecting you against such claims. I’ve always prided myself on creating an environment where women could succeed or fail without having anything but their own abilities and effort called into question.”

“And when you overheard the rumor you distanced yourself to protect me?” Kara guessed. It was such a Cat thing to do.

Cat nodded, it was only half true, that nagging feeling from the other morning still unnamable and unwavering in its pursuit.

_“Definitely not James Olsen.”_ Rung through her head once more but she ignored it.

“You could have just told me.” Kara said, breaking her from her musings.

“ _You_ could have told _me_.” Cat pointed out instead.

For a few minutes they both sat there, absorbing what the other said. When Kara thought it over a lot of their problems could boil down to their inability to actually talk to each other.

If she had just told Cat she wasn’t interested in Adam instead of dating him, if Cat had told her that she was upset about Adam leaving instead of insisting on keeping things professional, if Kara had just told Cat she’d been sick instead of letting whatever J’onn had done go unacknowledged, and if Cat had just asked if Kara were okay instead of hiring another assistant.

“I think this is a good time to talk about communication.” Jake spoke up in their silence.

Kara almost flew out of her seat, having forgotten he was even there. She quickly got her bearings and turned to him, clearly he was on the same page with her at least, they needed to learn how to talk to one another without it causing a company-wide meltdown.

“Wait.” Cat held up her hand. Kara turned to her confused; did she not agree that they had a communication problem?

“I need to revise my earlier statement.” She told them. “Since Kara’s become my assistant, I’ve reconciled with my son because she knew it was important to me, I’ve saved the Trib because she brought a story too incredible not to publish, I’ve cut my drinking in half because she cares about my health.” She started, addressing Jake, she turned to Kara. “I’ve grown; I’ve tried to better myself because you lead by example. You’ve made me better, you’ve made me _want_ to be better.” She finished, ignoring the look of shock and awe on Kara’s face, turning back instead to Jake and waving at him to continue where she’d interrupted him.

“Right…so communication…” Jake started again, a little shocked himself.

_“Oh if only Lucy Lane could have been a fly on the wall for this one.”_ He thought, before launching into his spiel for the week.

///

Kara had spent the rest of the day feeling drained. She and Cat barely spoke, both too consumed with their own thoughts about their session and what Jake had to say about their communication issues.

Silence aside, she’d found Cat watching her multiple times that afternoon her expression always thoughtful. To her surprise, she never looked away when Kara caught her, instead she’d give her a small smile before returning to work.

Kara still suspected that there was more to Cat’s distance over the last two days than just her desire to protect Kara from being the subject of CatCo’s rumor mill but she wasn’t eager to push the issue.

There would be plenty of opportunities for her to figure it out in the coming weeks.

Jake had decided to facilitate their attempts to communicate better with a new technique. They would no longer be getting weekly homework. Instead, starting Thursday, they would have a daily meeting of sorts.

He explained that the best way they could learn to talk to each other was to do just that.

There weren’t many rules, all he asked was that they go somewhere with no distractions and talk for at least thirty minutes a day until their therapy sessions were up, about whatever came to mind. And if anything major came up, they would talk about it in their Tuesday sessions.

He’d wanted them to start immediately, but Cat had insisted on a day or two to allow them to take a breather after their session that afternoon.

Kara was grateful for the break. As much as she may have wanted answers she was beyond exhausted.

All she really wanted was a bath and a pizza, and maybe some ice cream too, before collapsing into bed for the night.

She’d decided that was just what she needed.

She stood from her desk; the rest of the office had emptied out an hour earlier while she and Cat caught up on a few things that had accumulated while they were downstairs. There were just a few files she needed to bring to the mailroom before taking off.

With a quick glance toward Cat, who was still seated behind her desk typing away, two pairs of glasses on top of her head and one resting on her nose; she smiled at the sight before making her way to the elevator.

She returned a few minutes later, surprised to see Cat’s office empty and dark. She wondered if Cat waited until she was gone to leave to avoid having to say goodnight. She was just feeling the hurt settle when she saw a stack of paper resting on her desk.

It looked like the same cardstock in the journal Jake had given her at the beginning of their sessions. As she got closer she realized it was, except it wasn’t from her journal but from Cat’s. From where she was standing she couldn’t read the contents but she saw the top where a date was listed, whatever it was it was almost three months old.

She rounded her desk, looking again to Cat’s still empty office. With confirmation that she was still alone, she picked up the stack realizing it was thicker than she’d first thought.

On top rested a sticky note. _You Matter – C._

She reread the note a few times before carefully pulling it away and setting it gently in the top drawer of her desk.

Once she was sure the note wouldn’t be ruined, she looked at the papers, immediately realizing it was from one of their first sessions. The homework had been to create a list of things they appreciated about each other. In their session, Cat had stated that Kara was prompt and organized, and that she irritated her mother.

At the time Kara had been happy with it, but looking down at the papers in her hand she realized Cat hadn’t been completely forthcoming.

_-Kara is smart._

_-Kara always knows where my glasses are._

_-Kara knows everybody’s name._

_-Kara keeps an extra epi-pen in her desk for Carter._

_-Kara is loyal._

_-Kara plays music and dances in her chair after the bullpen is empty and she thinks I'm not watching._

_-Kara sees the best in everybody, even me; even when I don't deserve it._

_-Kara…_

_-Kara…_

_-Kara…_

The list went on and on, sixteen pages singing her accolades. Sixteen pages of habits and personality quirks that Kara didn’t know Cat had even noticed, some of them Kara hadn’t even realized herself, all dated nearly three months ago.

Her fingers traced over Cat’s scrawl. In some places, it was sloppy and rushed, like her brain was moving faster than her pen, in others it was drawn out and thoughtful.

She wasn’t sure what to make of it all and Cat hadn’t stuck around to explain. At least this explained her hasty exit. She always did have a hard time with sharing, especially when it took on the added feature of being sentimental.  

She trailed her fingers over the pages once more before reaching into her desk for a file folio to tuck them into before carefully putting them in her bag, not wanting to risk them getting damaged on the flight home.

Hopefully a relaxing night at home would help her make sense of it.

///

“She didn’t mention it at all today, and tomorrow we start our…talking thing.” Kara finished, watching Astra while she tried her best to translate. There wasn’t really a Kryptonian equivalent to what they were doing, on their planet relationships were more about bringing houses together and less about creating personal connections.

“Hmm.” Astra hummed in contemplation. “You are conflicted because you don’t understand her writings?” She asked.

“Yes…no?” Kara started only to stop.

“No?”

“It’s not just the papers, it’s her motivation behind giving them to me. I don’t understand what she wants.” She explained.

“I think what she wants is you.” Astra replied.

“Aunt Astra…” Kara sighed, unsure if Astra understood the connotation of her words.

“You are magnetic and personable; you always have been. Others are naturally drawn to you; Cat is certainly no exception.” Astra explained.

“You think she wants to be my friend?”

“I think you need to stop worrying so much about what she wants.” Astra deflected. “I think you’re on the right path. Use this as an opportunity to learn about each other, while you decide what _you_ want. Regardless of what that ends up being, learning how to communicate with each other will only help your relationship in whatever form it takes on.”

The answer was cryptic and frustrating but Kara couldn’t deny the truth of it. She’d spent the last year worried about all the things that were affecting her relationship with Cat and it obviously wasn’t helping matters, maybe it was time to take Astra’s advice and worry less.

“You’re right.”

Astra smiled, reaching for Kara’s hand and lacing their fingers together. “Any other big problems to solve?” She asked.

“I have to think of a way to tell Alex her iron levels are low without having to explain that I had Lucy and Vasquez run her vitals to make sure she hadn’t been replaced by an impostor?” She offered.

Astra laughed, “Let’s think…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whatdya think? I thought there were a few bits that were a little more sentimental than in previous chapters for which I'd like to blame myself because I've been listening to It's Quiet Uptown and weeping uncontrollably for the past week and a half so...


	5. Week 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all sorry about the long wait, life has been kind of busy and honestly, I suck at time management. 
> 
> This chapter is a little bit shorter than normal, but the next chapter is staring off with some big things and it didn't feel right to try to squeeze that into the last 800 words just to make the word count. 
> 
> Anywho, we're in the last stretch now! I think there will only be about one or two chapters left with an epilogue. Yay!

“Alex, did you grab extras of-” Kara was cut off by a bag of locking screws narrowly missing her face. “Thanks.”

They were both sitting on the floor, trying to figure out how in Rao’s name Panel A attached to Panel C and what the hell happens with Panel B - they’d been working on the dresser for nearly an hour in the same time it took Astra to put together the entire dining room set, and two bookshelves.

“Did you have to get everything from Ikea? You couldn’t have gotten even one pre-assembled piece?” Kara complained, working extra hard not to overturn the screwdriver and strip the screw, all while silently praying she’d attached the right pieces together.

“Hey, she picked everything out, I even tried to convince her to just splurge on the assembly fee but she insisted we do it together. Not that I can blame her, I remember another Kryptonian doing the same thing when she got her first place.” Alex pointed out with a fond smile.

“I lived and I learned,” Kara said with a huff, remembering the pain it’d been when she’d moved into her place after college, “and if I remember correctly, you and I took a blood oath swearing off unassembled furniture for good.”

Alex laughed, it’d taken them three solid days back when Kara first moved into her old place to get everything set up, at the end they’d gotten drunk on cheap sangria, or rather Alex had while Kara tried her hardest to drink fast enough to get a buzz, both swearing that they’d never do it again. She’d had blisters on her hands for two weeks, and she would swear on her life that Hank purposefully pushed her training extra hard during those fourteen days.

“Aw, come on it’s not so bad, we have an extra set of hands this time, and she’s obviously much better than we ever were at this” Alex argued, with a wave toward the all the assembled pieces that surrounded Kara’s aunt, “plus look how happy she is.” She gestured to Astra, who was gently swaying her hips to the song blasting from Kara’s laptop, while she gently slid the top of the bookshelf into place.

“See Kara, she has a thing.” Astra said distractedly, half focused on the pair’s conversation, and half focused on twisting the last screw into place.

Alex looked confused, but Kara rolled her eyes, understanding her perfectly. She couldn’t deny it though; Alex was being pretty obvious about the crush she was fostering for her aunt. It was probably why she’d convinced the DEO to set Astra up in her building instead of Kara’s or Lucy’s when they finally decided Astra could live on her own, so long as she was close to another agent and checked in regularly.

Which is how they got stuck assembling furniture on a Friday night, not that Kara minded, for all her grumbling, she couldn’t be happier that Astra was making such strides, although she’d be lying if she said she wouldn’t miss their sleepovers.

“Subject change.” Kara declared, not yet ready to think about anything beyond friendship occurring between her aunt and her sister.

“But what-” Alex rambled.

“I do not know about Alexandra,” Astra cut her off with a wink that Alex blushed at and Kara ignored, “but I would very much like to hear about how things with your Cat have been going. Did you take my advice?”

“She’s not _my_ Cat, but yes I guess I did…”

“I still don’t know what subject we’re changing from.” Alex mumbled but shut up as Kara continued to talk over her.

///

The first few days of their new communication exercise were equally awkward and exhilarating. It made her feel dumb, but there was something about knowing she had Cat’s undivided attention, even if it was mandated by their therapist, that made Kara feel all warm and grounded.

Kara had spent most of Thursday bouncing nervously in her seat. There was so much she wanted to talk about with Cat, so much she thought they owed to one another to finally discuss; her side job of being Supergirl the least of it. She wanted to talk about Adam, and Siobhan; she wanted to know why Cat hadn’t just fired her when things had started to sour, she wanted to tell Cat all the reasons she herself hadn’t just walked away when everything felt like it was falling apart; she wanted to know what the 16 pages of affirmations meant, and why Cat hadn’t shared them at the beginning; hell she finally wanted to know why Cat had insisted on calling her Kiera for so long, it never seemed important before but now every time she thought about it, she remembered the look on Jake’s face whenever Cat let it slip; and after all that, if a conversation about Supergirl somehow came up, she thought that’d wouldn’t be that bad of a thing either.

That afternoon after the bullpen had flooded out, Kara had poured them each a drink and they’d gone out to the balcony where they’d promptly stared at the city skyline for nearly twenty minutes, neither really knowing what to say, until finally Kara asked about an art project Carter had been working on, for the next half an hour Cat explained exactly why paint was banned inside their penthouse, while Kara valiantly tried to defend her craft and Carter’s right to his expression, even if it had ruined the apparently priceless sofa Katherine had gifted them with three Christmases ago, Cat hated the damn thing anyway.

Friday was a tad smoother, they’d only spent nine minutes in an uncomfortable silence before Kara started to ramble about a recent game night, where she’d almost had to break up a fight between Lucy and Winn after he’d lost them three rounds in a row. Each of them had lingered a little longer when their thirty minutes was up, the words flowing idly between them, until Cat had finally declared that she needed to get going, having promised Carter she’d be home before dinner.

They’d walked out together, Kara insisting that Cat’s private underground parking garage wasn’t too far out of her way. They’d nearly had to turn around when Cat realized she’d forgotten an article she’d wanted to go over in her office, but Kara had quickly reached into her own bag and pulled out her own copy, having intended to take a look at it herself.

Cat had only hesitated slightly before taking it, Kara assuring her she could access it digitally from the shared drive when she got home instead.

It was the sort of interaction that would never have taken place a year earlier, when Cat would have probably just scoffed at realizing Kara was bringing home work that went beyond her job description, before taking the article with a firm reminder of Kara’s place in the CatCo hierarchy.

Instead she was met with a gentle smile and a soft thank you before Cat bid her goodnight and climbed into her waiting town car.  

Kara walked away smiling, hoping this newfound dynamic would last its way to Monday.  

///

They didn’t plan to see each other over the weekend, having agreed with Jake that non-business days meant non-therapy days too, Kara had been pleasantly surprised to find a text from Cat waiting for her when she woke up on Saturday morning, a picture of Carter standing proudly with his art project, she could see in the background that Cat had the good sense to put sheets down this time to protect the furniture, not that it did anything for Carter, who was is pretty well covered in a multitude of colors. Cat had captioned it with a short message – _You weren’t wrong about letting him finish._

They’d exchanged a few more texts, Kara humbling patting herself on the back for encouraging Cat to give him another chance at it, and Cat feigning annoyance at the whole thing. It’d barely lasted twenty minutes before Cat was forced to cut off the exchange to make Carter lunch, radio silence resuming once more.

Kara on the other hand found herself bored and itching for something to do. Supergirl was having a slow weekend, her fellow DEO agents, Astra included, were off on a training exercise in Burbank, Hank having insisted the two of them stay behind if the city needed them, and Winn and James had flown to Metropolis late Thursday night for a bro’s weekend with Clark, whatever the hell that meant (and okay so maybe she was a little bitter with the realization that after this weekend, Winn will have officially spent more time face-to-face with her cousin than she had since landing here). She tried not to let it bother her though, deciding to take advantage of the weekend to herself.

Without her friends and family as a distraction, Kara was left to think about the person who’d been taking up so much of her thought-space lately, and found that she actually missed Cat.

She considered sending her another text, but didn’t want to interrupt her weekend with her son, especially since she knew Carter would be heading off the following weekend for a young engineer’s camp that was set to last the first two weeks of his summer break.

Instead, she booted up her laptop and pulled up the article she’d handed off to Cat, the night earlier, from CatCo’s servers. She read through it several times, making notes as she went; after an hour she was satisfied, closing her laptop only after she shot off a revised copy to Cat, hoping her boss would find her edits useful.

With that she decided to put work aside and enjoy a quiet weekend to herself.

She was successful until Sunday afternoon when her phone buzzed, she didn’t tear her eyes from the easel in front of her as she swung her hand behind her, blindly grabbing for the phone on sofa table behind her, figuring it was Alex letting her know they were on their way back from Burbank.

Instead she found a message from Cat, asking if she’d mind coming over that evening after dinner to talk about some of the edits she’d made the day before.

She nervously wondered if she’d done something wrong, made some correction or note that Cat didn’t approve of, before shaking it off and letting Cat know she was available.

Carter greeted her at the door a few hours later, looking freshly showered and comfortable in a pair of cotton pajama pants and a tee shirt, his hair damp and sticking up just slightly in the back.

“Hi Kara.” He greeted with a smile, looking equally shy and excited to see her as he held the door open for her to pass through.

“Hello Carter.” She said back with a smile, walking inside and stopping in the entryway, wondering if Cat was already waiting for her in her home office. Before she had a chance to turn and ask Carter, she heard soft footfalls behind her.

“Mom, can I show Kara my painting?” Carter asked, when she came to stand next to him, oblivious to the looks being exchanged between the two women as Kara took in Cat’s dressed down look, a pair of fitted designer lounge pants and a thin long-sleeve tee hugging her small frame.

“Of course, sweetheart.” Cat answered him, mindlessly bringing a hand up to smooth down his wayward curls, all while maintaining eye contact with Kara as she spoke in a tone that all but dared the other woman to say something about her outfit.

Kara just licked her lips absentmindedly as she finally pulled her gaze from Cat’s to follow Carter to the living room, missing the curious look Cat gave her as she passed. Instead, she gave Carter her full attention while he talked her though his process, listening intently and giving him a few tips that would save him both time and a mess in the future, and hopefully lead to less ruined furniture.

Cat lingered in the doorway watching the exchange, marveling at how alike the two in front of her were; shy and creative, and kind in a way she couldn’t quite understand if her own influence had any impact on them at all. She only interrupted the pair when she glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall, wanting to keep with her son’s routine.

“Carter, darling, if you want to read before bed…” she trailed off, nodding toward the clock.

He pulled a face and Cat knew if he had his way, they would forget about chapter books and article reviews and pile onto the couch for the rest of the night with a bowl of popcorn to steadily work through the Netflix queue he’d been tediously compiling in anticipation for summer break.

Finally, he gave a reluctant nod, he really did want to know if the mayor’s wife saw Liesel steal that book from the burning pile and he knew his mom really wanted to talk to Kara, still he made them promise that Kara would at least come and say goodnight before she left.

Once he’d disappeared into his room, Cat led Kara to her home office. It was smaller than the one at work, with only four tvs hanging on the wall behind her, and two monitors on her desk rather than the single Airbook she usually had at work; in the corner, a smaller, and obviously well-loved desk was pushed against the wall, almost perfectly mirroring Cat’s, except for the stack of homework that Kara spied laying out on top of it.

It was definitely cozier, the two sofas sitting in the middle looking just slightly fluffier than the pair at the office. Cat wasted no time settling into one, tucking her legs underneath her as she reached toward a tablet that’d been resting on the coffee table.

Kara took the move as an invitation and settled next to Cat, nervously wondering why Cat had summoned her here instead of just waiting until the next morning. “Miss Grant? Was there something wrong with the notes I sent you?” She asked after a few moments of watching Cat wordlessly scroll through her tablet.

“I have to admit, I was surprised when you pulled that article out of your bag on Friday, and further so when I received your notes yesterday Kiera.” She spoke without taking her eyes off of the screen in front of her, ignoring Kara’s question completely, even in pajamas she was perfectly intimidating.

Kara tried and failed to not wince at the return of ‘Kiera’ after so many weeks of only hearing her given name pass Cat’s lips, the feeling of dread that settled in her stomach was akin to what she felt when she’d sliced her finger open in Cat’s office the first time she blew out her powers.

“I was just trying to do my job, Miss Grant. If I overstepped in any way, I apologize.” She spoke sincerely, not understanding why Cat would be upset about it given that it was something she’d done a dozen and a half times before.

“How did you know I’d be looking at this specific article, out of the hundreds – nay thousands – that CatCo and its subsidiaries publish in any given month?” She asked instead, finally setting the tablet back on the coffee table and turning to give Kara her full attention.

“Derek wrote it.” Kara answered simply but continued when Cat waved at her to expand. “This last week, you’ve been acting differently toward him, your criticism has taken on a new tone, it’s more structured and clear, and you’ve been listening to what he has to say, you’ve been trying to teach him instead of simply dismissing him. I’m not really sure _why_ …” She half grumbled the last bit, holding hard and fast to the grudge she’d developed for him when she played CEO all those weeks ago, “but it seemed important to you, so it’s important to me.”

“Hmm.” Cat hummed as she thought the words over, sinking back further into the couch and shifting so she could rest her feet on the coffee table in front of her. “I have to admit, that I was very impressed with your work,” she nodded toward the still bright screen of the tablet that sat next to her feet, displaying the edited version of Derek’s article that Kara had emailed her the previous day, “even more that you took the initiative to look at it in the first place.”

“Like I said, Miss Grant, it’s my job.” Kara toyed with her glasses as she brushed off the compliment, despite how warm it made her feel inside, blindly hoping it meant she wasn’t about to be reprimanded or fired.

“Actually,” Cat held up a single finger, preparing to make a point, “it’s not.”

The dread returned, and Kara thought maybe this was what whiplash felt like, but before she had the chance to protest on her own behalf, Cat continued to speak.

“But I think perhaps it should be.” Her tone and gaze calculating as she waited for Kara to catch up to what she was trying to offer.

“I’m sorry?” Kara squeaked, wondering if this was Cat’s weird way of firing her or promoting her, or perhaps even some odd Cat Grant version of both; she’d been expecting, since Siobhan, that someday Cat would transfer her to another department, a few floors down, or across the city in the Tribune’s building, where all of Kara’s skills could still be a benefit to CatCo without them actually having to see each other.

“I’m not quite ready to let go of you yet,” Cat continued as soon as Kara spoke, hoping a fast pace would help her avoid the oddly endearing bouts of rambling these sort of conversations tended to evoke in her assistant, “but perhaps we could re-delegate some of your duties, make some adjustments that would allow you to take on a handful of the tasks I would usually assign to a junior editor.”

“Miss Grant – I…huh.” Kara tried again to respond, to thank her for the opportunity, to promise she wouldn’t mess it up, but she was still processing the offer.

Cat took a deep breath before speaking again, this time her voice took on a softer tone, and she gave her best attempt to let her work persona slip away. “These last two years, with you by my side have been…” she trailed off, her eyes focused on a point on the wall as she tried to put together what she wanted to say. “I have no doubt that CatCo would still be the amazing empire that it always has been whether I’d hired you or not.” She started, and Kara felt the pinch of her words in her stomach. “However, I believe you have served a large role in redirecting our growth, whether you knew it or not, you’ve rebranded CatCo in much the same way I rebranded Kristen Stewart after I singlehandedly rescued her from the cult-esque compound Stephanie Meyer was holding her in with that creepy CGI-robot baby.”

_“What is a CGI-robot baby? It sounds like something Indigo would use, your Cat must be very strong to have saved this Kristen Stewart.”_

Kara let a laugh out under her breath, wondering just where Cat was going with this.

“When I first started out, I was very idealistic in my views, and I had a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve, of what kind of journalist I wanted to be, and of how I wanted to tell the news. I think, perhaps, I’ve strayed from that path in some ways. I became so caught up in the public’s right to the truth and to the story, that I failed to remember that some stories aren’t mine to tell. You’ve reminded me that, as journalists, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard, that we need to find the balance between the rights of the public to know the truth, and the rights of individuals to share their truths when they’re ready and with whom they decide.”

Kara watched her intently, and she wondered briefly if it was Cat’s way of telling her it was the right time to talk about Supergirl after having shut her down before, but she saw no ulterior motive. For a moment, they sat in silence as Kara debated how she should respond, from the other room she could hear Carter turning a page in his book, and a part of her wanted to ask Cat about the pages _she_ had left on Kara’s desk the week before, she may even be able to get away with it, it seemed the other woman was in a sharing mood tonight, although that was something that was occurring more frequently as of late.

Honestly, she knew that any of that would simply be a distraction, an attempt to pull focus away from how serious their conversation had become. It scared her how quickly she had become comfortable being with Cat this way, open and honest. The fact that she wanted to lay all of her cards on the table whether Cat meant this conversation as a probe or not, terrified her.

In the past, all of her interactions had been so calculated and thought out, carefully doling out truths amid a perfectly crafted lie. The only person she’d never held back from was Alex, and perhaps Astra, after they’d moved past their initial…rocky reunion.

As much as she wanted to finally acknowledge the elephant with the red cape in the room, she was also hit with the understanding that it was just before Carter’s bedtime on a Sunday night, and even more than that, Cat was offering something to her without any expectation of something beside a yes or no in return, a rarity she didn’t want to ruin.

So instead, with the promise to herself that she’d make time for the rest to be said later, she finally settled on a soft, “Thank you Miss Grant.”

“Yes, well…” Cat gave a dismissive wave that reminded Kara of the day, all those months ago - _“Go find me a hero, Kiera.”_ – She almost wanted to point it out, to appreciate together and to be afraid together of how far they’d come since then. But she knew, the action was Cat’s way of letting her know she needed to take a step back from the heaviness of their previous conversation and she didn’t see the point in denying them both that luxury.

“I should let you and Carter get on with your night.” She said instead. “Unless you had more questions for me?” She asked, gesturing to the article that was still pulled up on Cat’s tablet.

“No, no, just think about my offer and we can discuss it more at the office tomorrow,” Cat said, reaching to turn the iPad off altogether, “I’m sure you have- well whatever you millennials do on a Sunday night, and I should be getting Carter to bed.”

“Would you mind if I said goodnight to him before I go?” Kara asked softly as they stood, her eyes catching just briefly at the way Cat’s shirt rode up just the slightest when she moved.

“Of course not, he’d be disappointed if you didn’t.” Cat answered distractedly, noting the way Kara’s eyes seemed to linger just a second too long. It wasn’t necessarily new, she was used to catching Kara gazing at her every so often at the office, but then again, it wasn’t unusual for her to turn heads, men and women included, when she was wearing an outfit that would make Wintour weep at its perfection, while simultaneously commanding her staff with a confidence that spoke of years’ practice. Cat, however, couldn’t remember the last time she’d managed to catch somebody’s eye while in sweatpants and bare feet.

She set the thought aside to unpack later as she led Kara down the hall to Carter’s room, knocking lightly to announce their appearance, before stepping aside so Kara could slide through the door.

She watched as the two exchanged their goodbyes, Kara giving him a few tips on how to find friends when he went to camp next week, and Carter making Kara promise to keep an eye on Cat, knowing how her routine got thrown off when he was gone. With one last fist bump, Kara was following Cat back through the house to the front door.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to call David to take you home?” Cat asked for the third time as they came to a stop in the foyer.

“I’m sure.” Kara promised. “Alex is probably home from her business trip, I was going to head to her place anyway, it’s not that far, and I like the fresh air.”

Cat nodded, expecting such an answer, “Right, well,” she pulled the door open, “I’d like a green tea with my coffee tomorrow, Carter says I need more antioxidants in my diet,” she rolled her eyes with a fond smile, “and if you’ll be late with your sister, then pick yourself up something too – that pumpkin monstrosity.”

“Thank you, Miss Grant,” Kara said.

Cat waved her off, “I’ll see you in the morning, Kara.”

“Of course, goodnight Miss Grant.” Kara smiled, taking another moment to regard the other woman before giving a small wave and heading for the elevator, hearing the door close behind her as soon as she was out of sight.

///

Monday brought with it a series of disasters that left Kara with little time to breath, let alone find a spare minute to speak with Cat about anything other than lawsuits and shakedowns.

CatCo’s head of marketing turned in his resignation letter before Cat had even reached the office, which had Kara bouncing between the new general counsel, who swore there was nothing that could be done about it, and Lucy who Kara called from the 28th floor bathroom, frantic, after two more members of the marketing team followed their boss’s lead. Lucy, despite no longer being CatCo’s attorney, had been able to point Kara in the right direction and promised she could come over after she was done at the DEO that night to help.

Despite the tension that was radiating off of Cat in waves, she never once took her frustration out on Kara as had been typical in the past. In fact, Kara was probably the only one in the office that Cat hadn’t lashed out at, more than half the employees that entered Cat’s office later left in tears or red in the face trying to control their anger, and Kara had fielded more calls from HR than she could remember since that time Katherine and Cat’s ex-husband had stopped by on the same day.

They didn’t leave the office until nearly one, Cat’s mood souring the longer they stayed, and Kara was already shifting the next morning around so Cat would be able to bring Carter to school herself, a routine that was usually reserved for Ella on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

This time, Cat wouldn’t take no for an answer, insisting that Kara join her and let David drop her off, Lucy had left a little after eleven and even though Cat was convinced that Kara was Supergirl, she still didn’t like the idea of her walking home by herself at such a late hour.

“We didn’t get a chance to talk today.” Kara said after a few minutes, trying to fill the silence between the soft rock station David was playing up front and the occasional shout from the groups that were starting to filter out of the bars downtown.

“I won’t tell Jake, if you don’t.” Cat spoke, eyes closed with her head was tilted back to rest on the seat behind her, her tone was flat but Kara could hear just the hint of amusement at the conspiracy of it.

“Deal.” Kara agreed, thinking to herself that Jake would probably be more proud of them for working together to deceive him than he would be disappointed at their failure to complete their task.

A few more moments passed before Kara spoke again. “I’ve been meaning to ask…”

Cat sat up and turned her head, raising her eyebrow as she waited for Kara to continue.

“It’s just – I mean, Jake mentioned, um, he said that you guys have known each other a while and I just wondered…I just, I know he wasn’t your therapist with Nathan because you wrote that article about _her_ and the way he said it sounded more personal…” She trailed off again, not sure how to ask Cat about their relationship.

“And you thought?” Cat asked, voice sharp, remembering the hack and the way the Wonder Boys had planted the idea in Kara’s head that Adam was some sort of transcontinental gigolo.

“It’s just, the way he spoke, and the way he looks at you sometimes, it’s the way – or well – I would imagine it’s the way some people look at Supergirl.” She finished, and Cat deflated, knowing Kara wasn’t imagining anything untoward.

“I met Jacob when he was sixteen,” Cat finally said, “I was working on a story about an impending mob war that was taking place in Boston. Jake’s dad was an errand boy for Kieran McCaughey, a notorious Irish mob boss who’d been on the FBI’s most wanted list since before he was even old enough to grow facial hair. Jake’s mom wasn’t in the picture anymore, and most of his dad’s family was somehow connected to McCaughey so Jake wasn’t far from following in their footsteps.”

_“I infiltrated a mob once, it only took me three days before I was able to seize control of the entire operation. Did you know cement turns to metal under the influence of lasers?”_

_“That’s terrifying.”_

 “Word on the street was that McCaughey was trying to forge a deal with Enzo De Luca, an Italian don, to push back against a recently organized, yet nonetheless efficient group that had started to infiltrate some of the territories that had already been claimed by either group, a chop shop here or there, a spot by the docks that’d only ever been used by one or the other and so on.

“It wasn’t even that outrageous of a proposal, the Italians and the Irish families worked together fairly frequently, and groups across time have forged alliances up to push back against The Triad, but there was just something in my gut telling me there was more to this.”

“Why were you in Boston?” Kara asked, CatCo would have been at least eight years old by the time Jake was sixteen, and she didn’t see a reason why Cat would have gone back to her days as an in-the-trenches investigative reporter at that point in her life.

“I was on the east coast to set up a new CatCo network, and I’d gone out to dinner with an old friend who’d taken a job with the Feds working with a newly formed guns and gangs taskforce, she’d mentioned it offhand and I became intrigued; I was away from home, and I missed Nathan, and this was before Carter so, I thought it’d be something to keep me busy until I was done.

“Anyway, in the middle of tracking down a lead, I run into this little punk at a small pub that had a reputation for its backroom ‘poker games’, he tried to convince me to buy him a Guinness; I refused of course, his voice still cracked and I could see the edge of a textbook poking out of the bag he’d stuffed under his chair. I would have walked away but,” she paused for a moment, eyes clouding over just a little, and she cleared her throat before she spoke again, “but, he uh, he was only a few years older than Adam would have been, and there was something about the way he looked, like he didn’t want to be there but he didn’t know what to do about it, so I bought him a burger and once I realized his connection to the story I was working on, he became my CI. He helped me crack the story open, and in return I made sure he had something better to look forward to if he wanted something more than his father’s legacy.”

“And the story?” Kara asked.

“Jake’s dad, William, was secretly working himself up the ranks of the new group, he’d been attempting to recruit multiple members of both McCaughey’s and De Luca’s groups to join him, using the insider information to undermine their operations, if he’d been successful it would have started an all-out war between the families.”

“Jake sold out his dad for the story?”

“Mmm, they had a complicated relationship, William wasn’t fit to be a parent, and McCaughey likely would have had him killed if he’d found out on his own. Instead, he was transferred to a federal prison where’s he’s still in a protective placement.” She paused for a moment looking contemplative, “I think Jake loved his father, but he knew he wanted something more than the life he’d watched his dad lead.”

Kara nodded, knowing it must have been hard to make that kind of choice. “He was lucky to have you.”

Before Cat had the chance to respond, David had cleared his throat, and Kara realized they must have been pulled up outside of her building for a few minutes at the very least.

“Sorry David,” she blushed, reluctantly turning to Cat, “Goodnight Miss Grant.”

Cat just gave her a wave, watching as she slid out of the car and made her way up the steps to her building. Finally, when she saw the lights click on four stories up, she gave David the okay to take her home.

///

“So, you’re going to tell her that you’re Supergirl.” Alex said more than asked, trying her best to keep her voice light but failing miserably.

“Alex…” Kara sighed. After these past few months of struggling with the decision to tell Cat the truth, she really didn’t have it in her to convince her sister that it was the right thing to do.

“No, Kara, it’s-” Alex rubbed one hand over her face, using the other to wave Kara off, screwdriver still clutched tightly between her fingers. “It’s, uh, it’s been brought to my attention that you’re, ya know, a big girl superhero now, and I should…I, um, I should be more respectful of your choices, and uh, and your ability to make them without me trying to force you to run it by a council of elders.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Alex saw Astra open her mouth, probably to inquire about the elders quip, but she gave her a look that clearly asked her told her not to bother and for once since she’d known the other woman, she listened.

“Alex, I-” Kara tried to speak but Alex cut her off again, wanting to really reassure her that she would be alright.

“And um, you and I, we talked about this a little didn’t we?” She asked without expecting an answer, “I told you that I respected Cat’s role in your life, and she’s important to you, so I think you should tell her.” She finished with an air of finality.

“Really?” Kara asked, a little suspicious and a little awed.

Astra watched on like she was witnessing some kind of beautiful miracle of a moment that made the years she spent in Fort Rozz worth it.

“Well, I mean you did tell Winn less than twenty-four hours after you first revealed yourself, and also that waitress at Noonan’s once, and probably a few more you haven’t mentioned. If we’re being honest, Cat’s probably the only person you haven’t told at this point.” Alex jabbed, breaking the tension that had settled around them.

She was met with one of Astra’s brand new throw pillows to the face for her efforts.

“I’m not that bad.” Kara said around a laugh.

“Tell that to all the people that J’onn has had to brain-zap.” Alex argued back with a chuckle.

“You know he hates it when you call it that.” Kara accused. “And he hasn’t had to brain-zap anyone!”

“Yeah, well he’s not here right now is he?” Alex said. “And, yeah he has, at least half the city.”

“I hope he reads your mind tomorrow and finds out you said that!” Kara sing-songed.

“You are so mean to me! I take back what I said about Cat.” Alex teased.

“No wait, Alex, I’m sorry.” Kara giggled, tacking her sister in a hug.

As Astra watched the two of them wrestle around on the floor, she couldn’t decide if she was happier about the new freedom her own apartment gave her or the two people who were in it.

“Ow, Alex!”

“Oh come on, we all know that didn’t hurt you, you faker.”

It was definitely the people in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully the face that this was so Cat/Kara heavy made up some for the shortness of it. 
> 
> I know some of you were expecting the big reveal in this chapter, and I'd originally planned for it but it just didn't fit how I wanted it to, but I promise the next one for sure!
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, I hope you liked it : ))))


	6. Week 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised this update like three weeks ago but honestly I underestimated the amount of editing this chapter needed and at this point I've read this chapter so many times my brain has melted. Also, I started a new job and am still really bad at time management. On the bright side, it's the longest chapter yet, and we will only have one more chapter left plus an epilogue before we finish this sucker up. Go team!
> 
> Just another note, there is some James/Kara stuff in here, I felt like the show didn't do them justice and kind of handled their "break-up" poorly so I wanted to try and give that a little fix : )

“Why is it that, the two of us, aliens who are impervious to all earth-bound diseases and conceivable injuries, are forced to endure a bi-weekly check-up when I know for a fact you haven’t had one in at least three years?”

“How is it that you complain more than her?” Alex countered as she pulled on a set of specially designed gloves, part latex, part kryptonite. She and Vasquez had been working their asses off on them for nearly seven months but damn if they didn’t make blood draws ten times easier.

“That’s not a fair question, you bribed her! Which isn’t even fair, Alex. I’m your sister, if anybody should be getting bribes around here it’s me!” Kara complained as she watched her sister peal back the wrapping around the needle that’s about to be stuck in her arm.

“She does make a good point Alexandra, if you were willing to offer me goods in return for my bodily fluids, it would only be fair for Kara to be offered the same opportunity. Also, my research about human anatomy does suggest yearly physical examinations are ideal for sustaining optimal physical health. As a scientist, I’m disappointed that you’ve failed to avail yourself of such a resource.”

Alex rolled her eyes, ignoring Kara’s muttering of “Ew” as she continued to prep for her sister’s labs. Turning only slightly to acknowledge Astra who’s sitting happily on table opposite Kara, legs swinging slowly, looking prepared to launch into an even longer explanation of her “research” but Alex was determined not to let it get to that.

“First of all, I don’t bribe her because it doesn’t work. She always complains anyway, and since she usually ends up getting what she wants regardless, it’s all but useless. Second, when your sister is basically a walking hospital, physicals aren’t really necessary. She’s better than a heart monitor.” Alex explained, as she reached for her sister’s arm.

“Ow!” Kara winced.

“I haven’t even touched you yet you big baby.” Alex huffed. “You can get knocked five thousand feet into the sea by an exploding missile but you throw a tantrum every other week about a small little _prick_.” She emphasized the last word as she finally slipped the needle under Kara’s skin.

“I guess it just hurts more when you’re the one attacking me.” Kara shot back through another wince.

“Okay, instead of complaining so much, why don’t you tell me again about the whole thing with Cat.” Alex suggested with a slightly disapproving look at Kara’s snark.

Kara had the good sense to at least feign a bashful look. “Okay so, like I already told you, things started off a little bit rough this week…”

///

“Why did you push me toward Adam?” Kara’s voice was soft, and she wondered for a second if Cat could even hear her, but the stunned look that crossed her boss’s face, and the controlled way in which she set her work aside before looking across to where Kara sat in the middle of her office told her that even a whisper had been enough.

They’d been each working silently, in their respective corners of Cat’s office for the last forty minutes before Kara had finally gotten up the courage to ask her question.

She half regretted it now as Cat stared her down with a look that made it seem like the space between them spanned half a galaxy instead of half a room. But even then, even with the chill she suddenly felt penetrating the air, she couldn’t truly wish it back. Not when she wasn’t sure when she’d get another chance to seek out the answers that she knew she needed.

They only had two weeks left with Jake, which perfectly aligned with the two weeks Carter would be gone for camp, a fact that meant later nights at the office, as Cat was reluctant to return to an empty house, and Kara planned to take advantage of the spare time they’d been given.

Barring a Supergirl emergency that would pull them both away, Kara planned to put the next two weeks to good use, and she wasn’t wasting any time.

About five minutes had passed since Kara had spoken and Cat had yet to say anything. Instead she simply watched her, and Kara had seen far too many department heads on the same side of the look Cat was giving her to know that she wouldn’t be getting the response she wanted, although if she was being honest, she didn’t even know what it was she was looking for Cat to say.

“I didn’t push you toward Adam.” Cat finally said with an eye roll.

Well, at least Kara knew she didn’t want _that_. Before she could control it, an involuntary scoff was flying out of her mouth, earning an even more exaggerated eye roll from Cat.

She didn’t want this to be like pulling teeth, she’d gotten so used their easy conversations over the past few days and she’d been hopeful that they’d be able to get through this with a minimal amount of frustration, but Cat apparently had other plans.

“You accepted his offer for a date on my behalf before I had a chance to respond for myself.” Kara reminded her.

“Well darling, if we’d waited for you to do it we’d all probably still be standing here.” Cat said.

“Did you ever consider that I may not have said yes, that maybe I was trying to come up with a way to tell him no without hurting his feelings?” Kara asked, getting up to sit in one of the chairs in front of Cat’s desk.

“Why, is the idea of dating my son also _ridiculous_?” Cat threw back.

“What?” Kara asked, wondering where Cat’s sudden venom came from.

Cat looked at Kara’s confused face and sighed. “Never mind.” She said, letting the anger that had been building up drift away, reaching up with one hand to pinch the bridge of her nose.

She didn’t know why she was letting herself get so worked up over something so stupid. So what, Kara thought the idea of a relationship between the two of them was ridiculous, it’s not like she felt any differently. Perhaps it was because she was so used to getting whatever she wanted, not that she wanted Kara, because she’d honestly never given that idea much thought, but knowing that if she ever did she could have her? Well that wasn’t all that horrible for her confidence. Knowing now that a possibility she herself hadn’t had full time to consider was off the table was causing her a level of anxiety that she wasn’t eager to evaluate.

“I didn’t want this to turn into a fight,” Kara spoke softly after a moment or two, “I just…” she trailed off, looking up to meet Cat’s eyes, “I just want to know that we’re going to be okay. We only have a few more weeks with Jake, and we still haven’t really talked about how all of this started, and every time we try it turns into a fight, and I don’t want that. I…” she blew a breath out that sent the wayward wisps of hair around her face fluttering, “I just want us to be okay.” She repeated.

Cat deflated even more. She wished she had an answer, but if she were being truthful, she hadn’t given the situation with Adam much thought since she’d returned from Opal City. Once she’d realized that the relationship – or lack thereof, in this case – between Adam and Kara had no impact on her own relationship with her son, she’d thought less and less about the entire ordeal.

She reached across her desk to shuffle some papers around, before looking back up at Kara. “We’ll be okay.” She promised before turning back to her work. She knew it wasn’t the answer Kara wanted from her but for the moment it was the best she had to offer.

The sound of Kara’s feet shuffling from her office made it clear that it wasn’t enough.

///

The phone rang seven times before Cat heard the telltale click that told her her call would be answered, another thirty or so seconds of disoriented grumbling came through the speaker before she was extended a greeting, she didn’t mind, waiting patiently as she skirted around her living room, rearranging throw pillows and blankets that hadn’t been moved since she’d done the same thing the night before.

“Mom?” Her son’s tired voice came through the line. “What’s wrong? Is Carter okay?”

“Do you think I pushed you and Kara together?” She asked him.

“What? What are you…it’s one o’clock in the morning.” He said, he didn’t sound upset, just confused and Cat winced just slightly, she always forgot about the three-hour time difference.

Before she could apologize for waking him up, she heard another voice mumbling to him, Cat could hear him shift the phone away from his ear but it did nothing to muffle his words. “Shh, everything’s okay, go back to sleep.”

She could hear the rustling as he tried to disentangle himself from the blankets, and the subsequent quiet curse as he apparently tripped out of bed.

“You have somebody over.” Cat stated, her voice curious, she knew he was seeing somebody new, but she’d yet to hear much about this elusive Sarah ( _“No, Sarah with an H…no it’s not a rebound…their names aren’t even pronounced the same, it’s just a coincidence.”)_

“Has your father even given you the sex talk?” She asked absentmindedly as she listened to him making his way through his apartment. She’d always been open with Carter when it came to conversations about his body and consent, and all of the things that came into play when one was in an intimate relationship, at least as far was age appropriate. But this was just another reminder of how absent she’d been from her older son’s life.

“Ew…Mom, we really do _not_ need to have this discussion.” She could practically hear him squirming through the phone.

“You have a young woman in your bed Adam, so I think we really _do_ need to have this conversation. If I remember correctly your father was never the most…open about these things and I won’t have you walking around, ignorant about this, I couldn’t bear it if you or somebody else got hurt because we couldn’t bear a little awkward conversation.”

“Ya know, you never tried to have this conversation with me when I was dating Kara.” He pointed out, his voice smug, like he’d just made the only point that needed to be made.

She cringed at the thought of her son and her… _assistant_. Of course she’d seen them together when Adam was in town, but it had all been very middle school, sweaty handholding and kisses on the cheek, and while she knew it never went far beyond that, it still made her stomach churn uncomfortably.

“Yes well, Kara moves about as fast as a one-armed sloth when it comes to romance, I figured I’d have another few years before it became an issue.” She deflected.

“You’re a little bit ridiculous, but if it makes you feel better, Dad tossed a sex-ed book at me when I was 12 and after I stopped crying at the illustration on the first page, I called my best friend Aubrey and told him all about it and _his_ parents ended up giving me the talk and made sure their door was always open if I had any questions.”               

Cat’s heart clenched at the thought of strangers doing what she’d been unable to do for him. Even though she knew that David had been a great father in many other ways, she couldn’t help but wonder how things would have been different for Adam, and for herself, if she’d been around like she’d promised herself she would be when he was a toddler.

Her silence must have lasted a beat too long because suddenly Adam was speaking up again like he’d been reading her mind.

“Stop that, things could have been different, and yeah maybe it would have been better if I’d grown up with both of you or maybe it would have been awful and I’d have turned out super resentful of all the back and forth; there’s no way to know that, but the way I see it things are pretty good now, so why don’t we move on and you can tell me why you called.” He said.

She sighed and shook herself out of her regrets, “Do you think I pushed you and Kara together?” She asked again.

“Well, yeah, kind of.” He answered immediately.

“What?” She’d called hoping he’d say Kara was being crazy and that Cat had only done what any good mother and boss would do, even if she herself knew it wasn’t really the truth.

“Well, I mean you accepted a date her behalf, and you were super invested in how things were progressing, at first I thought it was really cool how much you were trying, but then it just kind of felt like I was the middle man between the two of you.”

“That’s preposterous.” She said.

“No it’s not. C’mon, I really thought you’d have figured this out by now. I mean with the whole therapy thing and you guys working on your relationship, and with our conversation before you left to go back to National City, I basically told you myself.”

_“Definitely not James Olsen.”_

“That’s what you meant by that? You thought…what?...Kara and I?” She was sputtering now.

“It’s not that crazy! Can you honestly say you’ve never thought about it?” He asked.

“I sometimes think about eating an entire cheesecake for dinner, that doesn’t mean I let your brother talk me into it, just like I won’t let you talk me into this.” She said firmly, hoping the motherly tone that always worked on Carter would work on her older son as well.

“So you have thought about it, then?” He asked and she could detect hints of her own smug tone in his voice, at least he inherited something from her.

“You just missed the point completely.” She sighed.

“But?” He asked hopefully.

She let out a deep and steadying breath before responding. “Some rather foolish employees of mine have apparently been spreading a few untoward rumors about Kara and I, so yes, I thought about it, and I realized how absurd it was and I moved on with my day.” She left out the part where her ‘day’ had lasted closer to 36 hours and how she’d been a complete and utter monster about the whole thing.

“There is and never will be anything more than a professional friendship between Kara and I, she’s my assistant and your ex-girlfriend.”

“We went out twice in a way that when added together would equal maybe ¾ of a really shitty date, she was never my girlfriend and like I told you before, it wouldn’t have worked out between us anyway. All I could think about was how she had done this great thing for me by getting me back in touch with you, and I just wanted to be able to do something like that for her, and I thought, I don’t know - that dating her would give me the opportunity to do that but now I think bowing out was best for both of us.”

Cat rubbed at her face, definitely not missing the way he said ‘bowing out’ like he did it just for her. She was more confused now than she had been when she picked up the phone.

“Adam…” She sighed, suddenly having déjà vu to the handful of times when she’d had to tell Carter that she’d broken it off with her latest fling.

“Mom, you have to do what’s best for you, and what’s best for Kara. Maybe I read this all wrong and you guys are just meant to be whatever the hell it is you are now or maybe there’s room for more, but you’re never going to find that out if you keep hiding behind me and the two seconds worth of time I spent with her. Figure out why you pushed her toward me so she can have closure and then put it away and move on.”

He heard her make a noise that he thought was the closest he’d get to any sort of acknowledgement.

“Listen, I love you but I’m going to go back to bed now, because it’s 3am and as great my couch is, it’s not where the cute girl is right now.” He joked to try to lighten the mood. “Just think about what I said okay?”

She sighed as she heard the click on the other end and tossed the phone aside. She looked up at the clock above her stove and realized it was probably time she went to bed as well, but as she stood up from the counter, she detoured into her office instead, knowing she wouldn’t be able to get much sleep tonight.

///

Kara breathed in deep, taking in the salty smell of the ocean as she strolled along the pier. She was happy to see all traces of her accident with the oil tanker the year before had all but vanished. That, combined with the sunshine and good company made it a pretty perfect lunch.

“I haven’t had a chance to ask how your trip to see Kal went.”

Beside her James flashed a bright smile and her heart felt like it was falling back into place just a little bit. Things had been a little off with them for a while after whatever they’d almost had had started to fizzle out, but it was the simple moments together like this that made her realize how much she’d really been missing him.

“It was great, it felt like getting the band back together, plus Winn, who was uhhhhhh?” His voice got higher as he pulled a face.

“Uhhhhh?” Kara said back with a teasing smile.

“Clark had to leave in the middle of a poker game for an emergency, Winn actually passed out when he saw the cape, granted Clark was totally doing the pose just for his benefit.” He told her.

_“Why would a cape cause a vasovagal syncope?”_

_“Haven’t you ever met somebody that impressed you so much it was overwhelming?”_

_“I was quite impressed with Alexandra when I first met her.”_

_“You tried to kill me the first time we met.”_

_“And you lived, proving you were worthy of my initial assessment. If you had instead had a vasovagal syncope, I would have killed you and then where would we be?”_

_"Oh my god. Kara, please keep talking before I’m forced to recreate your aunt’s and my first encounter.”_

She laughed, easily picturing the sight. “He’s a dork but I love him.” She said around a chuckle.

“Winn or Clark?” James asked.

“Both.” She snorted, leaning toward him just a bit to bump his shoulder, gaining a laugh in return.

They fell into an easy silence for a few minutes as they continued walking. Finally, they came to the end of the pier and Kara turned and let herself fall back against the railing, spreading her arms wide, turning her face up toward the sun, letting a content sigh fall from her lips.

“I’m glad you could get away for lunch today.” James said from beside her where he propped his forearms against the railing, looking out toward the sea.

It was supposed to be her and Cat’s therapy day, the second to last one at that, but Jake had been called back to Boston on an emergency so they’d rescheduled to Thursday instead. Cat had decided to use the extra time to sneak in a session with her masseuse so Kara had at least an hour and a half to herself before she’d be needed back.

“Me too, it’s been a while since we’ve had the chance to catch up, just the two of us.” Kara said honestly, shifting to mirror his position. It’d been months since they’d really spent time together without some sort of buffer.

 “I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I wanted to apologize, for how I acted when Barry was here and-” James said suddenly.

“James, that was months ago, and you don’t have anything to apologize for.” She told him, reaching up to adjust her glasses nervously. Her heart was beating a little harder as she tried to sidestep the impending conversation, feeling uncomfortable for both of them.

“Kara, relax, it’s okay.” He promised, turning to face her, watching the wind whip her hair around for just a second before looking up to meet her eyes.

For a long moment, they just held each other’s gaze and Kara felt all of the mixed feelings and awkwardness that had been lingering between them for nearly a year start to break apart. Instead she was left with a deep sadness knowing that by the time they made it back to the other end of the pier they’d likely be leaving behind whatever this thing that’d been happening between them was.

She didn’t realize how much it upset her until she felt James reaching over with one hand to lift her glasses, using the other to swipe his thumb across the wetness on her cheek.

She used the back of her hand to swipe roughly at the other side, letting out an embarrassed laugh.

“I’m sorry.” Kara said as she reached out and looped her arm through his, forcing him to turn again. She hoped maybe this would be easier if they didn’t have to look at each other while they spoke.

“It’s okay Kara, it’s okay.” He said softly.

“I don’t even know why I’m so sad, we never even went on a date.” She said, pausing for a few seconds. “I guess I just had this idea in my head of what it’d be like, you know? You and I…” she stopped for a moment like she was picturing it in her head, “Lazy Sundays where we’d eat our weight in donuts and watch crappy Hallmark movies all day. Bringing you home to Midvale or introducing you to Astra, I – it was so easy to picture us together. I guess lately it’s just been…” She trailed off trying to think of the right word.

“Fuzzy?” He suggested.

“Yeah,” she nodded, “fuzzy.”

She turned her head to look at him and saw his eyes were a little wet as well, making her wish again that this was easier.

“Yeah,” he echoed, bumping their shoulders together, “me too.”

“I wish I knew what changed.” She wondered out loud.

“ _You_ changed, Kara.” James said, continuing quickly as he saw the look of hurt cross over her face. “No, it’s a good thing, you’ve grown a lot in the last year and it’s been amazing to watch.” He promised. “You’ve developed a confidence and a drive…like yesterday,” he pointed out, “I watched you almost throw down with that guy over his op-ed piece. When I first got here, you would have just pushed it to the top of Cat’s pile and let her deal with it, and now you’re standing up for yourself, and you’re not afraid to show the rest of the world how capable you are, I could go on but we’d be here all day.”

“I did not almost ‘throw down’.” She said seriously, even though James could see the twinkle in her eye.

“I don’t know,” his voice took on a teasing tone, “I saw that Supergirl stance come out, you were ready to launch him on a one-way trip to Jupiter.”

Kara scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Opinion piece or not, nobody needs that much hyperbole in one article and the suggestion that I rewrite it myself was preposterous. _And_ I would also like to point out that celebrities are paying through the nose to go to space these days so really, I would have saved him a ton of money.” She said gaining a laugh from him.

“For what it’s worth, I’ve changed a lot too.” He acknowledged, not wanting to put this whole thing on Kara.

“This year away from Metropolis, away from the reputation I had there, I’ve felt more like myself than I had in a long time,” he continued, “and I realized that I messed up with Lucy in a lot of ways. She and I, we put a lot of pressure on each other to be this perfect couple and I think maybe it’s a good idea for me to take some time to myself. I need to figure out what I’m really looking for, not just in a relationship but in my work too. I talked to Cat and she’s going to give me a little flexibility to try some new things out as long as I get her approval before we go to print.”

“James, that’s great.” Kara said earnestly.

“It is,” he agreed, “it is. I still wish things could have been a little different for us though, that the timing could have been better, that we’d been ready at the same time.”

“Yeah, me too.” Kara agreed.

“But hey, who knows, maybe it’ll circle back someday and we’ll get another shot at this.” He said.

“Yeah, maybe.” Kara said softly, laying her head against his shoulder.

Even though they both knew it wasn’t true, for just a second they let the idea wash over them as they watched the waves break against the pier, and Kara thought even if this was all they ever got, she was pretty lucky.

///

Their session with Jake had started pretty normally, and Kara almost forgot that it was close to being over.

Jake had gone on a fifteen-minute tangent about the importance of cooperation and compromise before asking them each to come up with an instance in the past week where they’d employed either for the sake of the other.

Cat had surprisingly given a very thoughtful answer where she didn’t even attempt a dig at Kara’s clothing choices before turning the floor over to the woman at her side.

Kara looked between the two of them as she felt the panic rise in her chest. She hadn’t realized how reliant she’d become on this time together, where they were forced to communicate and to confront the problems that were hindering their relationship. It was suddenly hitting her full force and she wondered what she’d have to say to get Jake to give them more time, just a few more weeks until she was really sure they were on solid ground.

“Kara?” Jake prompted, slightly concerned at the sudden deer-in-the-headlights look that’d come over her face.

“Are you going back to Boston?” She finally blurted out.

“What?” He asked confused at the sudden question.

“Next week is supposed to be our last week with you but I don’t think we’re ready yet. We still have so much to talk about…about how this whole thing started, and Siobhan, and you know especially the Super-” she suddenly felt a strong elbow in her side and looked over to find Cat glaring at her, “the Super Bowl thing.” She finished lamely.

“The Super Bowl thing?” Jake asked, clearly confused.

“Yeah…” Kara drawled out, face scrunched up as she tried to turn the slip around, “I uhh, I had a Superbowl party a while back, you know when there was the Superbowl!” Her face lit up as her excuse started to come together in her head, while Cat looked like she was gearing up to set a new world record for longest eyeroll.

It didn’t help that Jake was watching Kara with a look that was half disbelief and half amusement, apparently already knowing that whatever came next was an obvious lie. “You had a Superbowl party?” He played along, curious to see where she would take this whole charade.

“Yes! Except that, well I didn’t invite Cat to it,” she said, her voice sincere, hoping Cat would get the meaning behind her words, “and it really hurt her feelings because I invited some other people, and it maybe gave her the impression that I trusted them more or that I valued them more.” Her voice became increasingly more gentle the longer she spoke, she turned in her seat to look at Cat who was watching her with rapt attention, a look in her eye that made Kara feel like a child again, sitting in a sciences class taught by one of her father’s colleagues, sifting slowly through the information, not quite as lost as she’d been at the start of the lesson and yet nowhere near complete understanding.

“Is that true?” Jake voice broke through.

“Huh?” Kara asked dumbly turning to give him with a slightly glazed expression as her brain worked overtime trying to decipher the look in Cat was giving her. Much like science, Cat was one of her best subjects and she knew if she was patient enough with herself she could make the equation balance.

“Did you not invite Cat because you don’t trust her?” He asked.

“What?! No! Of course not!” Kara was quick to answer, saddened to see a brief shadow pass over Cat’s face as she turned away making it clear she didn’t fully believe her.

“That’s not it!” Kara all but shouted, trying to get Cat to look at her again. “Cat, that’s not it,” Kara said softer this time, “I mean, maybe at first there was some hesitation, but I know that you would never do anything to compromise my….Superbowl party.” She finished lamely.

When Cat didn’t respond, Kara signed and looked at Jake, letting her body flop back into the couch, resigned. “This is why you can’t move back to Boston, we’re not ready to do this without you yet.”

“Kara, I’m not moving back to Boston.” He said.

“Really? ‘Cause you seem to really miss it, and you did just take a sudden trip back so you probably got some kind of amazing job offer and I know how hard it is to walk away from a chance to be home again and-”

“Kara,” he cut off her rambling with a small smile, “I wasn’t offered a job, I, well I actually went back for my father’s funeral.”

“Oh.” Kara said, deflating as she realized her misstep. She could see Cat suddenly sit forward, looking as though she wanted to reach out Jake but he waved them both off.

“However, that’s not important right now. What is, is that I’m not leaving National City,” when Kara looked like she wanted to speak up again he continued, “nevertheless that doesn’t mean that we need to extend our time together.” He said.

“But-” Kara started to protest only for him to hold his hand up to silence her again.

“You don’t need me anymore.” He said firmly.

“Yes, we do.” Kara argued wishing Cat would jump in and back her up, there was no way _she_ could think it was a good idea for them to be on their own again, not after she herself had set this all up.

“No, you don’t.” He held his ground, “Kara, ten minutes ago, you started to say something that was obviously very important to you, and you stopped yourself because I was here. I mean, no offence but a Superbowl party? Really?”

Except for a wince, Kara didn’t respond.

“Whatever you _were_ going to say, you were ready to say without me, and Cat looked like she was ready to hear it.”

Kara looked to Cat for confirmation, and saw the barest hint of a twitch that suggested Jake was right.

“Look, I know that it probably feels scary right now to think about being just the two of you again, but that doesn’t mean that you can just use me as a crutch to prop your relationship up. I’ve told you before, I’m only here to give you the tools to make this work yourselves, and the only way your relationship will lapse back into the place it was in before is if you let it; but honestly? I don’t see that happening. I know you’re serious about this Kara, you wouldn’t be so afraid if you weren’t, and despite how nonchalant she wants to act, Cat is too. Isn’t that right Cat?”

“Why else would I be wasting perfectly good business hours?” She replied sardonically but it lacked its usual bite.

“See?” He gestured to Kara, who let out another heavy sigh as she realized she wouldn’t be able to sway him.

“Now, our session technically ended ten minutes ago, and I have another appointment across town but I think you two should stay here and finish discussing your “Superbowl party”.”

Kara looked at Cat out of the corner of her eye and saw the flicker of hope cross her face, and she decided he was right, it was time they learned to do this on their own.

///

Kara listened for just a moment as the elevator doors closed behind Jake, to make sure the rest of the floor was clear as well, if she and Cat were going to have this conversation, she wanted to make sure nobody else would be around to hear it.

Cat, however, mistook Kara’s silent concentration for hesitation and began to stand. She’d promised herself she would let Kara tell her whenever she was ready, and though she’d foolishly gotten her hopes up that that moment was now, she wouldn’t push her if she wasn’t, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to sit here and look like an idiot begging for table scraps again.

“Wait, where are you going?” Kara asked, face scrunched up in confusion as Cat started walking toward the door.

“I need to go baby proof the seventeenth-floor conference room. Salei is interviewing Ryan Lochte about his little ‘indiscretion’ in Rio and I’d hate for him to stick his finger in one of the outlets before she has a chance to fry him herself.” She responded tersely, and even she had to admit it wasn’t her best material.

“But aren’t going to talk?” Kara asked confused.

“You’re not ready.” Cat said.

“What? Yes I am.”

“Kara you’ve been sitting there with a blank look on your face since Jacob left.” Cat pointed out with a sigh, ready to turn again and leave.

“I was just making sure we were alone, I’ve been told I’m not a very good secret keeper but I know better than to just blurt my biggest secret out when there are strangers around.” She grumbled with a pout, leaving out that time at Noonan’s, and that time she and Alex were grocery shopping, and the other day when she didn’t realize the UPS guy didn’t actually have his headphones in his ears…Cat didn’t need to know about all of that. “You can never be too careful, I mean Max Lord planted a bug on my own sister to find out who I was.”

“He did what?” Cat asked incredulously.

“It’s okay though, I think Alex did some of her face punching thing, and my boss – well my other boss – might have wiped his memory, we’re not really sure on that one, but Lord did suddenly decide to move his base of operations to Florida so it feels like a strong possibility.” Kara said thinking it over, J’onn hadn’t said anything but he had taken a personal day that lined up a little too closely with Lord’s announcement.  

“What do you mean -” Cat started to ask but Kara knew nothing good could come with the impending interrogation.

“I always fall asleep during the Super Bowl.” She said without waiting for Cat to finish her question, hoping to get them back on course for more than one reason. “When you’ve been to planets that have sports involving real dragons, men in tight pants pushing each other over for an oval isn’t all that appealing.”

Kara could hear Cat’s breath catch, her feet involuntarily pulling her back to the sofa to drop gracefully down next to Kara.

“My dad would take me with him on his travels. I used to think it was his way of bonding with me. I was always so close with my mother and aunt, I thought maybe our trips were his way of having me to himself for just a little while, our own special adventure. But now…” She trailed off for a few seconds looking at a spot on the wall or perhaps through it.

“They _knew_ \- my parents,” she clarified, “they knew that our planet was unsustainable, that we were on the brink of self-destruction, and I think maybe they just wanted me off-world as much as possible in case…but then in the end I guess…I wish I didn’t know any better.” She finished, and for what started as a confession, a revelation, she found her thoughts going deeper as they had a habit to do when in the presence of Cat Grant, the woman who always pushed her to work more, think harder, dig deeper. She took a breath and reminded herself that now wasn’t the time to reflect on the irreversible parenting choices that led them here.

She was grateful when she looked up to find Cat watching her carefully a hint of sorrow at her honesty, but without pity. Most prominently, was the lingering curiosity waiting to be fulfilled. Kara knew that to truly move this forward into something resembling more of a conversation rather than a monologue, she would need to say the words that Cat had been waiting on for the better part of the past year.

After another quick check that nobody was close enough to overhear her, Kara drew in a breath, half waiting for Cat to hold up a hand to stop her or an emergency to need her attention, when nothing came she let the words that’d caught in her throat every time she saw Cat, “I’m Supergirl.”

It felt equally important and anticlimactic but she could hear Cat’s heartbeat speed up just a touch.

“I could tell you about Krypton and what was important about that plane or about _Him_ and The General and why we’re the only three here and I will if you ask but right now, I just need to know that _this_ ,” she gestured between them, “doesn’t change.”

“You mean you want to know that your employment won’t be terminated.” Cat finally spoke.

“No. You wouldn’t do that now.” Kara said confidently, knowing that they were past that at this point. “What I mean, is that our relationship, won’t be affected by this new information.”

Cat scoffed at the word ‘new’ but managed to contain the quip that was ready to roll off of her tongue. “Why the sudden urgency for me to know?” She asked instead. “These past few months, you’ve appeared more and more eager to share all of this and I thought it was…progress so to say. I had hoped you felt you could trust me as we’ve worked on our relationship these past three months; however, hearing what you had to say to Jake – I’d be loath not to consider you’ve only felt the need to share this with me out of fear that I would somehow castigate you for not doing so.”

“My decision not to share this with you sooner has never been a matter of trust.” Kara told her seriously. “I can’t say my decision to deceive you into thinking I wasn’t Supergirl wasn’t in part because I wanted to keep my job, but I always knew you wouldn’t compromise my identity for a story, no matter how big of a story it would be. I’ve watched you put your neck on the line for too many sources before for that to be the case.”

“Then why?” Cat asked her voice stern, her CEO persona on full display, but Kara could see the hint of vulnerability in the way she pulled her arms in tighter to her body as though she were creating a barrier against whatever Kara would say next.

“I went to lunch with James on Tuesday and while we were talking, he said that I had changed a lot in the past year. He started to talk about this new confidence I seemed to have, maybe even a touch of defiance, and he called it growth.”

She fiddled with the piping that ran along the cushion under her thighs as she spoke, her eyes almost unseeing as she lost herself in what she was going to say next.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I realized that I knew the person he was describing because it’s who I used to be before I became something _more._

“On Krypton, my family was held in very high regard. Even without our family’s crest being displayed on every article of clothing I owned, most everybody knew who I was, teachers fought to have me in their classes, other children were eager to make friends with me, even adults yielded to me on the street out of respect for our house.

“I was always taught to accept such reactions with humility, and to respond with grace and kindness, but I was also taught to expect such a reaction to my presence, and because of that I grew up with a naturally instilled confidence.” Kara explained.

 _“Oh._ Confidence _. Is that what we’re calling it now? Because when you first came to live with us and demanded my room to yourself because it was more fitting for a lady of the House of El, I think we called it something else.”_

_"Sorry Alex, but only ladies of prominent standing are allowed to interrupt my stories – Ow! No using the kryptonite gloves for torture!”_

Cat listened with great interest if not a slight curiosity as to the relevance of such a regaling to their original conversation. Nonetheless, she let Kara speak without interruption.

“But when I got to earth, I was taught to hide all of those parts of myself to stay safe. A fourteen-year-old girl shouldn’t expect others to straighten their spines when she walks into a room or be able to pull babies or their nannies out of burning cars or have a temper tantrum in the middle of the grocery store because no combination of ingredients there could come close to making something that tasted like home no matter what her surname had been on a dying planet. Kara Danvers was a normal girl whose parents died in a fire, and Kara Zor-El would have to learn to deal with that.”

She heard Cat’s small gasp at hearing her given name but continued without acknowledging it. “I learned how to hide all of those parts of myself that made me anything other than a perfectly normal and ordinary human girl. And when I became Supergirl, I couldn’t risk anybody finding out who I was so I created a person that contradicted everything Kara Danvers had grown to be.

“I took all the pieces of myself and divided them up to whichever persona was best suited by them. And for the most part it worked. My entire life, the only person who has truly known me - as I am and every iteration in-between - has been Alex. To her I’m not the meek and sensitive orphan or the strong and fearless Supergirl, I’m just me, and I can be strong and sad and confident and vulnerable and to her it doesn’t matter because that’s who I am and that’s how she loves me.

“Nobody else has ever been able to put the pieces together but you’ve always required more of me, and at first it was just because you have unrealistically high expectations, but now - Alex says you speak my language.” She risked a glance at Cat to find slightly widened eyes staring back at her. “All this time I’ve been fighting with myself to understand why it’s been so hard to tell you the truth, and it has nothing to do with trusting you or because I value you less. It’s because I didn’t need for you to know I’m Supergirl for you to see me. From day one, you’ve held me to an expectation that is on par with what I’m capable of, and it’s not because of my power, it’s because you understood me in a way most people don’t.

“When I’m at CatCo I feel like the best version of myself. I was afraid that if you knew the truth that Supergirl would overshadow how you view me, and I would lose the place – the person,” Kara said, now keeping her eyes firmly on Cat, “that’s given me an unexpected sense of belonging.” Kara finished.

It was a loaded statement she knew, and one she didn’t say lightly, but she needed Cat to understand why it had taken her so long to admit to.

“I…” Cat started, only to realize she wasn’t sure how to respond but Kara was watching her with a nervous expression that only grew as the seconds ticked on, “I suppose if you don’t suddenly start expecting me to curtsy every time you walk into a room, I can manage to keep our relationship the same as it’s always been.”

The tension that had been building in the room started to slowly trickle away and Kara felt herself smile.

For the next few minutes they just sat there, Kara wondering how long it would be before Cat asked to see the cape and Cat working through everything Kara had just shared with her.

“In the interest of honesty,” Cat said after a few more minutes, “I should admit that I did push you toward Adam.”

Kara’s head snapped up in surprise.

“A part of me thought that I would have a better chance of knowing him if the two of you were involved; you’d already built a rapport with him, and nobody would leave Sunny Danvers…” She left out the part where she may have been using Adam as a roadblock to her own growing infatuation, having only recently realized that were the case, “I didn’t consider you beyond fulfilling my own needs and that was wrong of me.” She finished.

“Thank you.” Kara said with a nod. “But just so you know, you wouldn’t have needed me, anybody would be crazy to walk away from you.” She said it so sincerely that Cat actually wondered if one of her superpowers included the warmth that enveloped her chest.

She didn’t respond, instead looking to the clock on the wall before standing, “We should get back upstairs before the rumors about our mid-afternoon activities reignite.” She said instead.

Kara felt herself flush a little at the implication but figured she was just hungry after being stuck in the same place for two hours. Even so, she had a hard time tearing her eyes away as Cat bent over to grab their cellphones out of the basket that was still sitting under Jake’s now abandoned chair. She wondered if Noonan’s was still serving sticky buns this late in the day.

Cat gave her an odd look when she turned around but handed her her phone silently, walking out of the room as Kara followed a step behind still contemplating her afternoon menu choices.

They’d just stepped into the elevator when Cat turned to Kara, a glint in her eye, “About the cape…”

///

“I think it went well, I was pleasantly surprised.” Kara said, legs swinging happily as she finished retelling the events of her week.

“That Cat Grant has a cape kink? I could have told you that.” Alex said, snapping her gloves off and tossing them in the trash can next to the exam table.

“What? No – Wait what?” Kara stumbled out, as Astra laughed long and hard from across the room. “I’m just going to ignore that you said that.” Kara mumbled, ever the irritated little sister. Still, when she turned to stick her tongue out at her sister she found Alex watching her with a tender look.

“How do you feel now?” Alex asked when their eyes met, “Everything is out in the open, no more lame excuses about getting Lyme disease when you have to take a day for the DEO.”

“Good.” Kara answered a little too quickly, “I mean it’s good right? We’re almost done with this whole thing and then we can move on to business as usual, and-” she stopped talking at the look Alex was giving her, clearly not buying it. “I don’t know, I just feel like I’m still missing something? I’m relieved, for sure, and I like that I don’t have to lie to Cat anymore about,” she tugged on her cape, “but I feel like we left something out.”

Alex shared a look with Astra, “You have one more week with Jake, right? Just see this through and whatever comes next, you’ll figure it out. And hey, you’ll have your amazing, and wonderful, and all-knowing big sister here to help.” Alex said with a soft smirk.

“I knew I should have left that part out.” Kara teased as she hopped off the table automatically reaching for her sister’s hands. “Thanks Alex.”

Alex squeezed her hands before gently pushing her out the door, “Go enjoy the rest of your lunch break, I’ll see you later for tonight.” She promised, watching as Kara bounced down the hall, only barely dodging another bat on her way out.

She counted to ten, waiting until she knew Kara would be out of earshot before turning to Astra, index finger at the ready, “Whatever you’re planning, don’t.” She said firmly.

“I have no idea what you mean Alexandra.” Astra said, jumping down from her own spot with a smug look.

“Mmhmm, I’m serious Astra, leave it alone.”

“If that’s what you want.” Astra sign-songed as she left the room, leaving Alex standing with two vials of Kryptonian blood and a scowl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought : )))


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